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Back to the Forum Archives In the evolution of man our anthropologists point out a progression of man from the Australopithecines or Southern Apes up to Homo Sapiens. In theory Homo Sapiens is what we are now. That is all well and good, but it does not take into account all of the developments of man. I think there are a few stages of development and-or regression since Homo Sapiens emerged. Let me elaborate. I am satisfied with the first deduction of our scientists. It seems everything we know, or think we know, about man indicates human evolution began in the Pliocene Epoch between 5 and 1.8 million years ago. This is when Australopithecines or Southern Apes first appeared in Africa. Many authorities consider these apes to be the ancestors of Homo Sapiens or modern man. So, considering that the Big Bang or creation of the universe occurred about 20 billion years ago we are relatively newcomers in the grand scheme of things. So be it. So far so good. Now a while after Southern Ape showed up, he evolved into a fellow we call Homo Habilis or handyman. The time frame we get for this development is somewhere around 2 billion years ago. This guy had better hands and a larger brain than the Southern Ape. Hence, he was able to make simple tools and develop some kind of a culture. This all seems reasonable so far. The next evolution in man, according to these same scientists, was the appearance of Homo Erectus or Upright Man. This is not to be confuse with a 21st century person on Viagra. This fellow showed up long before the pharmaceutical industry was formed. We get that he appeared about 1.6 billion years ago. That is a long time for us, but a relatively short time on the cosmic time scale. Mr. Erectus had a larger brain than Homo Habilis. That gave him a decided advantage over the previous model of man. He was able to become a very successful hunter. Moving right along now, we find the next development in man to be the appearance of Homo Sapiens or, so-called, modern man. According to science Homo Sapiens is what we still are. There has been no further development in the evolution of man. Well sir, that is where I must respectfully disagree. I believe there has been further development which produced some additional models of the species Homo. Let me now define these as I see them. First of all, we often tend to overlook the fact that man became a conscious animal somewhere in this evolution. In fact, consciousness, which gives us the ability to observe our own thought process and hence to plan, is what distinguishes us from other animals. Although Homo Sapiens did evolve as a conscious edition of the species Homo he was still something of an animal in that he had not yet developed his reasoning capacity. This was very clear in his tendency to attribute various forms of magic as a causative agent in his world. So I think we should assign the name Homo Supersticious to the early edition of Homo Sapiens. Now then, along comes the golden age of Greece. What happened there is really inexplicable. Almost suddenly, men looked away from magic and superstition to seek understanding through reason and logic. This is the age which laid the foundations of all of our modern sciences. Until then, magical creatures, (Gods) of one form or another ruled the human psyche. I believe this was clearly a major step in the evolution of man. therefore I assign to this species of Homo the title Homo Philosophis. Following the Golden age of Greece the Roman Empire developed, but the sciences and philosophies developed in Greece continued to influence men. That lasted until the Dark ages when humankind suffered a regression and slid back into the grip of magic. We became once again Homo Supersticious and intolerance ruled the world. Then, after years of struggle, there emerged a species of men who were willing to risk horrible deaths to revive the sciences and philosophies. This was the age of the Enlightenment. This was, I believe, a new species of man very similar to the men of the Golden Age of Greece. I choose to call this species Homo Enlightenus. Out of this age came our American democracy. It was too good to last and it did not. In America a new species
evolved out of the second world war which I can only call Homo
Degradious. This was the man who indulged in everything vulgar
for its own sake. That was bad enough. Now I find there is another
development. I think it may be the final stage of man. I will
call it Homo Trivialus. This is a species of man who is so inane
that he ignores all but his own indulgence in things trivial.
He is the voyeur extraordinaire with no goals, plans or concerns.
Unless a re-emergence of Homo Enlightious occurs the universe
is probably destined to be dominated by the newer species Insectus
Cockroachious. Indeed, blessed is the cockroach for he will inherit
the earth.
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