The Progress of Humans

Homo sapiens or we humans are the newest species on the evolutionary block. Just about 200,000 years old. For perspective, the first living organisms came on earth  3.6 billion years ago, the first vertebrates 485 million years ago and the first mammals 200 million years ago. Our closest ancestors the great apes came about 20 million years ago.

But if you think about it how cool is our intellectual and cultural progression!

Take the simple example of a hot water shower. Yes, I have just stepped out of one and that is where the chain of thought started, so, a hot water shower.  The concept of cleaning the outer body and skin using water is there among other species also, so okay, we won’t consider that. What is unique to humans that came to hot water showers is this. First we tamed fire for domestic uses such as providing light, cooking and heating. Then there is the idea of heating water to take a bath that is unique to us humans. Going forward, we discovered electricity and put it to its various uses including heating. Phew!

But it’s still not done. That was the heating of water part. Now we come to showers. We have metals and the durable alloys made from them. Along with it are the making and building of tool like pipes and showers and using principles of physics like gravity to control the flow of water. That really requires quite some intelligence, doesn’t it? And this is just a simple shower of hot water, (excluding soaps, body washes, shampoos, conditioners, loofahs, towels etc) an everyday occurrence. (Side note: everyday things can be so elegant and profound if you really think of it).

And today, with the rapid progression of technology, we are trying to create intelligent machines. So we not only have this intelligence, we are trying to map it, emulate it and pass it on to inanimate objects like machines.

Now compare this to the other older species who are still working on the basics of survival and reproduction.

Pretty cool, isn’t it?!