Are human beings an evolutionary mistake?

[H2O Man]

32. Recommended.

Interesting question, with some very good responses. So thank you for asking something that a lot of people think about, perhaps more frequently in the last few years. By no coincidence, it is something my brother and I talk about quite a bit -- he works at a west coast university, where the same question is frequently debated.

In my opinion -- which is of no more value than anyone else's, and less value than some others -- "modern man" is a failing species, heading to join ranks with the majority of species on earth that have become extinct. But, as others here have noted, that does not equal our being a mistake.

Although our interpretation of the fossil record has to be understood to be in the context of "incomplete," although advancing as more new fossils are found and thus expanding our insights on human evolution, some things are known for sure. I think that we can compare the length of time two of our extended family walked the earth is worthy of consideration. Let's take a brief look, rather than my usual long and tedious rants!

Homo erectus has been documented as living on a significant area of the earth for about two million years, the longest of the Homo species. There are at least ten sub-species of Homo erectus, with zero evidence of warfare between them. Their culture was relatively advanced, and included art.

Neanderthals lived on earth for about a half-million years. I assume that people here are somewhat- to fairly familiar with Neanderthals, so I won't go into detail here.

Modern human beings have walked the earth for about 300,000 years. The first 290,000 seemed to have gone fairly well, in terms of our living in harmony with a sometimes dangerous, sometimes pleasant environment. Then things slowly began to change, with the changes gathering momentum. Our relationship with the living environment became very different in modern times, perhaps especially so as a result of the industrial revolution. But I keep in mind Carl Sagan's view that the bibical "fall from grace" is a description of the evolution of our frontal lobes (which made child birth more painful, speaking of that Good Book).

While I agree completely with the comments in the OP/thread about the savage nature of a large percentage of human-kind, I think the greatest threat to our future as a species is tied directly to our destruction of the environment. We have a mistaken view of our relationship to the earth -- believing it exists soley for our human purposes -- when, in fact, all of organic life on earth, including every extinct and living form of life, exists only and entirely for the earth's purposes.

I will end with this song: