Evolution does not stop
We are not the end station, whatever people may think. When we look into the mirror, what we see is a transient face. We are still on the move. Humans will not just stay put in evolution. No way.
What do we expect of humanity four million years from now? Will there still be those who actually resemble us? It has taken us some four million years to become the species we are today, and we started off as a chimp. So really, in such a period much can change. Evolution is ongoing. Whatever we do – or don’t do.
But it is a slow process
In our present day we are very much confronted with the notion of continuity and its opposite: extinction. We have already changed Earth beyond recognition in a minute glimpse of time – just a few thousand years - and killed off countless species, gone for eternity. At the same we influence the wheel of evolution, including the evolution of our own species, unwillingly, and mostly unknowing of the nature and direction of that influence. I believe it will be another few thousand years before solid evidence of ongoing ‘new’ evolution of our species will actually surface.
Gods or Brutes
It may start with new isolation. Isolation is a fundamental prerequisite of evolution. It will most certainly progress through – i.e. by virtue of - adversity. Adversity inflicted by nature, or, as likely, by man himself. It may also be that some quality is being favored by other means, e.g. cultural means: ideal models of fashion may well become ideal models of human progress. We don’t know. We either end up with a Planet of the Gods, or we create a Planet of the Brutes. Both outcomes are plausible, none is more or less unlikely.
White Western Man, 20th and 21st Centuries
Western man goes extinct
We are being warned today that the western white man is moving towards extinction, unless he now starts pro-creating at a more massive scale. Our western civilization is rapidly becoming short of western children. So, at least we are being warned about one possible course of evolution, .i.e. not including the descendants of western modern man. We better make up our minds.
But this is a very narrow view of course. We are just a few thousand years into civilization anyway. Many civilizations must still follow. So let’s be a little bit neutral about it. We cannot claim to be the ultimate civilization, we cannot claim al wisdom and all love such as is needed for the future prosperity of all mankind, for ever. We are still very far from that.
We have only scratched the surface of our brain potential. One Einstein will in the long run be thousands of Einsteins, millions perhaps. There is no end to the potential qualities of man and his descendants at any time in any era.
We still have a chance
And apart from Einstein we have many other things to cherish, and perhaps we have a few things to pass on to the future.. We have our accomplishments. We have our Western Science. We have our libraries. We have our music. We have our ‘things’. There is a lot worth preserving and worth transferring to the next generation and so on. This really is all we are supposed to do. And this includes our genes, in my view.
So yes, let Western Modern Man stay in the competition. Let us secure our fatherhood of all the good things of our kind. Let them have our good things in ten million years, in hundred million years from now. Always.
