Book Reviewed: Primate Change: How the world we made is remaking us, by Vybarr Cregan-Reid

Climate Effects on Human Evolution

Life moves fast; but the biological evolution is slow. Small anatomical changes have occurred in the last 250,000 years of human history, but they are insignificant and marginal. But technological advancement has significant impact on the behavioral adaptation that has progressed rapidly on evolutionary scale towards transhumanism. By the time genetic evolution that would be reflected in thickening of tooth enamel and our back-bone structure because of our diets and sedentary life styles, other non-biological events will impact the future of human beings. The artificial intelligence (AI), brain-machine interface and quantum realities would have taken over body and mind. Species of Transhumanism would have adapted to life in alien worlds such as Mars, and moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

The genus Homo, to which our species belongs, had the capacity to adjust to a variety of environmental conditions, and Homo sapiens were able to cope with a broad range of climatic conditions, hot and cold environments, arid and moist ones, and with all kinds of varying vegetation like expanding dry grasslands or thick forests. The adaptations that typify Homo Sapiens were associated with the largest oscillations in global climate: (a) hominin origins, (b) habitual bipedality, (c) first stone toolmaking and eating meat/marrow from large animals, (d) onset of long-endurance mobility, (e) onset of rapid brain enlargement, (f) expansion of symbolic expression, communication, discovering, and the ability for learning and innovation.

Environmental biologists are too hung up on the Armageddon that would be created by climatic effects of excessive fossil-fuel usage, deforestation, and the lack of clean-air acts. Environments have changed dramatically too many time in the past 3.9 billion years of life forms on this planet. Complete destruction of life occurred a few times, but life came back with vengeance and evolved successfully. What lies ahead is that technology will take over biology. Climatic effects would be bad and so is nuclear proliferation and the willingness of United States and Russia to sell nuclear technology to Islamic countries in the Middle East which would make threat of nuclear war more of a reality. This would make climatic effects due to human involvement much more dangerous than mere fossil-fuel usage.