Humanity’s Gift

At some point, roughly 3.8 billion years ago, life formed on Earth. Allow me to state that Earth is not a new planet; rather, Earth is an old planet. The universe is estimated to be roughly thirteen billion years old, while Earth is somewhere around age 4.5 billion years. To place that into perspective, Earth is just over one third the age of the universe. And yet, it is the only known planet in the cosmos that harbors life.

On that note, I think it appropriate to state that there is little possibility that life more advanced than human society today exists on other planets. Think of it this way: species need to evolve to survive, and as they evolve and progress through time, they become smarter and more fit to their environments. Life has existed on Earth for most of the time that Earth has existed, and only now are humans as advanced as we are today. Any alien species would need roughly the same time to evolve as we did to reach our level of intelligence, and as Earth is an old planet, any alien species would most likely be newer than any Earth species. This would indicate that alien specimen would have had less time to adapt and evolve than us here on Earth have, and thus they would be less intelligent (or at least at our level of intelligence).

This is only a theory, however, as, according to Pliny the Elder, one must acknowledge the only certainty is that nothing is certain. Therefore, life could progress and transform in any way apart from us and we would not even know. The dinosaurs, for example, were wiped out in a sudden event of destruction, resulting in the deaths of almost every life form on Earth. If that event had not occurred, one could only say where civilization would be right now. On the other side of the argument, the dinosaurs lived for three times longer than we, humans, live apart from them in time. Humans have been on this planet for a slim period of time compared to nearly every other type of species, and yet, we have achieved many times more than anything else in our short existence. My point is that life and evolution does not work in a straight, predictable line. While it is somewhat predictable, it moves in jumps and leaps when it can, and flatlines when there is no progress to be had.

And that is what all of life is, really, just a little luck. Humans simply happened to be placed into a landscape that caused us to evolve into what we are today, and we have been more resourceful with our gifts of nature than any other species has. Luck played a large part in the creation of life. Billions of years ago, carbon simply obeyed the laws of chemistry and reacted with the elements in a manner so proper as to create life. In the end, all life is a tool by which electrons and elements react and bond and explode. This does suggest that there is no meaning to life, but that is not the point of this book.

Now humans, humans are very fortunate because we have evolved to the point where the need for greater evolution seems unessesary at this point. A hummingbird, for example, may desire to drink the nectar from a flower that is curved, and over the generations, the hummingbird species will develop a curved beak to fit the shape of the flower and ingest the nectar.

Humans, on the other hand, are more apt to avoid succumbing to the same physical changes because a human would simply use their hands to manipulate the shape of whatever was stopping them from reaching food. As I stated before, humans are fortunate: we can manipulate objects around us with ease, while nearly every other life form cannot, for they have no hands, or no fingers, or no ability to stand taller on just two of their several limbs.

Humans have also developed language. We have learned to take incoherent sounds and create something meaningful out of them. It is truly incredible what can be accomplished with a few grunts and moans manipulated with precision. Other species, of course, can communicate as well, but none can do so as advanced as humans. Humanity is good at giving gifts to itself, that is for sure.

The takeaway from all of this is that humanity, though it may seem vulgar at times, is actually quite the achievement. Billions of years of evolution, adaptation, competition with other life forms and with ourselves, and we are today the most intelligent, most powerful species ever known. And yet, we also maintain much of our former primitive customs.