Homo sapiens

∞ generated and posted on 2016.11.09 ∞

Us.

Homo sapiens to a degree may be differentiated into more than one subspecies, only one of which is still alive today, Homo sapiens sapiens.

H. sapiens is the undisputed master among Earth's organisms of cultural evolution, the ability to not only effectively pass information from one individual to another but also to improve upon that information. The result is much greater evolutionary fitness associated with humans than unquestionably would be the case absent this mastery of cultural evolution.

As with evolution in general, keep in mind that it is a response only to short term problems. Thus, as with any organism our ability to survive as a species over longer time frames remains an open question. The difference is that we are the only organisms on Earth that can ponder the important question of whether our short term triumphs possibly have been made at the expense of our long-term success.

The following is a bit preachy in spots but otherwise packs a lot of information into a nicely done overview of certain aspects of what it is to be a relatively modern human:


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