As my previous post stated, I've been quite busy the past few days. Now that I've hit a bubble of free time that may burst at any time due to my 3 assignments due one, two and four weeks from now, I'm going to stay true to my daily post for as long as I can.
If I'm going to be making a post after four days, it should be a good one, so it needs a good topic. So I'm going to go with humanity. This will be my first fact post: a post about...well...facts. The long explanation is 'A fact article written by Callanthae is an article about the history, background and/or information about a particular thing, time, place or grouping of some kind.'
In this case, it's humanity. This post is all about thinking, so let's go way back to where sentience began! I hereby apologize to any religious peoples. These are not proven facts, but rather my opinion. If you do not believe in evolution, that's fine. I respect people's rights to other beliefs.
Sixty-five million years ago, the dinosaurs died out. Nobody truly knows why, but a comet is most likely. This allowed the mammals on the earth, up till then small, rat-like animals able to evade the murderous dinosaurs, to flourish and become the dominant race.
Two million years ago, humans emerged. Again, nobody knows why, but I will tell of one theory, that I believe to me the most likely scenario, and I will treat to be fact for argument's sake. About two million years ago, a species of African apes gained the ability to rise onto their hind legs to see over the tall savannah grass. Over time this ability grew until the apes always rose on two legs. This gave the apes an incredibly useful evolutionary tool.
The hand. Extraordinarily flexible, fairly strong, and able to carry large amounts while still walking. The opposable thumb allows for fine motor skills. Because of this hand, the apes were able to use tools. In order to be able to use bigger and better tools, the apes began to grow bigger and bigger brains. However, when the brain size reached critical mass, the apes began to die during childbirth due to the oversized brains. Thus, to this day, babies are born with brains that double in size during their first year.
This, however made them fairly helpless. A baby giraffe can stand up within five minutes of it's birth. By six months, many animals are fully fledged and hunting for themselves. Most babies can't even sit up properly at this age. Thus, the apes formed long-lasting communities to care for these young, which led to increased social interaction, which increased food yield through co-operation. And the brains kept getting bigger.
A mere thirty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens sapiens were born. These were civilised men, with the same physical structure as we have today. They used tools to kill prey, scavenged vegetables, and used controlled fire. This was very important: humans were and still are the only animals who create fire. Some animals use fire, but only humans actually make it. It was many more thousands of years until, about ten thousand years ago, humanity learnt agriculture. This allowed us to stay in the same place for long periods of time, so we constructed better buildings, and settled down for our living.
Animals began to become domesticated, and irrigation developed. Bronze tools were developed to replace stone. Ancient empires formed, such as the Sumerians. Then, about four to six thousand years ago, an empire formed that almost everyone knows about: the Egyptians. Thanks to the Nile, their lands were exceptionally fertile, and due to the floods, they had time that was not used to grow food. They used this time to build monuments such as the pyramids. The Egyptians had their own mythology, which they used to explain phenomena like death, and the floods of the Nile.
Then the Greeks and the Romans arrived. They also had mythologies to explain the world. This shows they were thinking, and exploring the world around them. Greece and Rome produced the world's first great minds, philosophers like Plato, poets like Homer and mathematicians like Pythagoras and Archimedes.
Then Rome died, and the Dark Ages began. For the first time, the Western World united under one religion: Christianity. This led to the Middle Ages, and the story of human evolution does not go much further. Humans developed science, using testing to prove the way of the world instead of religion. The only thing that has changed is time, and the specifics. Science vs. religion still exists. And that is the story of human evolution.
If any of this is wrong, feel free to refute me: I like to learn. And by wrong, I mean historically inaccurate. I'd rather not get involved in a religious debate if possible. Now to leave you with the dailies:
Daily Quote: Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. -Elbert Hubbard.
Daily Website: http://www.xgenstudios.com/. Unlike Kongregate, XGen Studios don't have many games, but they games they do have are of an incredibly high average quality.
Until next time, may you take the time to simply stop and think.
-Callanthae
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