One of the most amazing books I’ve read in the recent times is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It is a terrific read, and is one of those rare unputdownable non-fiction books; which though talks about human evolution, juxtaposes it on top of every topic human beings would be interested in. I won’t spoil the book for you. Read it. But for purposes of this blog post, we need to know that there were multiple species of human beings which evolved from archaic species from the Homo genus, over 2 million years ago. Since then, based on the location, food habits, weather, expectations of society, level of difficulty of survival, and natural disasters, our ancestors got whittled down to 10–15 unique species. From among all those species, only Homo Sapiens remain. Today, science has reached a level of advancement wherein it can analyse our DNA and come up with a pretty accurate composition of what we are. i.e. it can come up with where our ancestors most probably belonged to, and how many different species intermixed to create the wonder that you and I individually are.
Even without the anthropological lesson, most of us realise that we have evolved to our current level of complexity because of what our previous generations have gone through. People with African genes are often physically stronger and faster than most of us because their ancestors’ circumstances demanded those qualities, which got passed down the genetic code. Island folk evolved with larger lung capabilities, and we often see documentaries where they dive for pearls or special kinds of fish without oxygen tanks and spend several minutes underwater. Colour of our skin, capacity of our brains, our average height and weight, fertility in females, longevity, disease resistance, they’re all directly an outcome of the genes we’ve been passed along by our ancestors. Qualities passed along in that genetic code formed because of what nature (and society) threw at our forefathers, and we are what we are because there are a lot of qualities which got into the mix because those species intermingled. So the crux of these two paragraphs is that we are a mix of all these qualities because there was variety in our ancestors, being handed down over hundreds of thousands of years. So picking up the best of all species, Homo Sapiens managed to wipe out all other competition to become rulers (or destroyers) of this planet.
Which brings us to the present.
Though stemming from a species which thrived because it had variety in its genepool, we somehow arrived at a being uncomfortable with variety. We are not comfortable with lifestyles which are radically different from our own. For the last thousand or so years (since humans realised that they no longer had to be restricted to their own areas and that the seas could be sailed), adventurers and empire-builders have worked fanatically to spread their way of life to as many people as they could. But because there were many civilisations trying to do the same thing, there still was variety. But after empires collapsed and capitalism became the supreme power across our world, we no longer seem to have any need for that variety. Over the last hundred years or so, we have been rapidly moving towards a world there is uniformity. We want the exact same things wherever we go. Our world today encourages markets and economies which conform to expectations, and shun those which are unpredictable. Since we’ve all become horribly interlinked at multiple levels, it is impractical for a country to even imagine that it can get away with complete non-conformity. Some nations were eager to jump onto the bandwagon as soon as the world wars ended, and some managed to hold off a while longer. Some countries were powerful enough to set their own terms before agreeing to become a part of a uniform world, and that became the norm. But the slide towards uniformity has been unavoidable.
So we eat and drink pretty much standard fare wherever we go. We live in conditions which are more or less similar, as we’ve managed to herd a lot of our population indoors. We do similar work wherever we are. We travel the same way — airplanes, trains, metros, cars. We pursue the same hobbies. We enjoy similar (or often the same) entertainment. We wear clothing made of almost the exact same fibers. We keep the same pets. Our homes are increasingly being built the same way, with the same materials, adorned with the same decorations. We spend our time pretty much the same way. We worship the same Gods. The list goes on and on.
Uniformity has become the norm. We’ve steadily herded ourselves to being predictable. The same Starbucks coffee, the same McDonalds burger, the same Avengers movie, the same metro rail coaches, the same Egyptian cotton, the same Labrador dogs, the same modular kitchens, the same smartphones with high speed internet. We all do the same thing. We can talk to each other wherever we are in the world today and instantly connect over a dozen things which are common to us. This was never the case in the evolution of our species. Imagine when Hiuen Tsang came to our emperors courts. Everything would have been a wonder for him, much as he would have been a wonder to the courtiers! Today we can walk into a conference room on the other side of the world, and be totally at home with the surroundings. We would instantly know what to do with the tools available, what is expected of us, and aside from a few cultural nuances (which keep reducing with each generation), we would be able to pretty much begin to work instantly. Is this a boon? Unquestionably, this has put us on a growth rate which was unthinkable for our earlier generations. The level and pace of knowledge being acquired, assimilated, and dispensed is quite incredible. We’re making life-changing discoveries almost every single day. The speed of innovation is unbelievable. Our economies are direct beneficiaries of this. Most countries in the world are at a growth phase where their GDPs are poised to grow manifold in the coming years, and these growth rates are being taken for granted.
But what does that do for us as human beings? With very little variety left in our lives, and very few challenges from nature which require us to adapt and grow organically, we are well on track to becoming something none of our ancestor species ever could — the same. We’re all becoming similar in our lifestyles, and our genes keep learning what is needed for our species and changing their code all the time. So since we barely ran or jumped in this generation, our genetic code will pick up on that and tell the next generation that they are not expected to do that either. In a few generations time, like we lost our tails because we didn’t use them, we’ll lose a lot of abilities. If we look back and spend a little time on research, I’m certain we will find abilities which our ancestors had a hundred years ago, which we no longer seem to find in our personalities. Strength and agility and the most easily visible. There are a lot more too. As we use antibiotics and cure most diseases nature throws at us, our body’s natural ability to heal itself gets diminished — and our genes will tell the next generation that anyway there are external aids to cure us if needed. Like in Wakanda, technology will soon become an organic extension of our own personality. We’ll take it for granted — much like our ancestors took the wheel and fire and agriculture and ships for granted at various key phases of evolution.
From multiple species in the homo genus, just us Homo Sapiens remain. So we’re not at threat from anyone else (as of now atleast). Of course we are well capable of destroying ourselves, but that is fodder for another blogpost. So our greatest threat (or opportunity, depending on which side we view it from) is that we are becoming the same all over. Much like MacBooks perform the same way the world over, we will pretty much be doing the same stuff and leading lives the same way. Yes we can customise the icons and use different fonts on our MacBooks. And yes we can wear our hair in different ways and get tattooed in creative places. But there’s not much variety that’s going to be around in a few hundred years (or sooner). Our genes will adapt to that and the next generations will all be told genetically that they only need to have certain basic skills since most other stuff will be taken care of. Pixar and Walt Disney probably foresaw this. They made Wall-E in 2008, in which people became slobs who didn’t have to do anything at all. The beauty of humankind is that we appreciate it when someone talks logic to us. So we awarded the film with an Oscar 😉.
Since we are not yet there, the best we can do is to celebrate our differences. A hundred years ago, we had lots of differences. Today we have fewer of them. But still we have enough differences to be novel. We can’t oppose this march of uniformity. It is too strong. But we can delay it by sticking on to our unique abilities, our personalities, idiosyncrasies and personality quirks, and by respecting those of others. We’ve not had the level of wonder that Hiuen Tsang had at seeing a people who had nothing in similar to his own. Our great grandkids will probably never experience the wonder of seeing people who are any different from what they are! Till then, like Sesame Street says, we’re different, we’re the same, and we’re all wonderful!
