Member-only story
How Sapient Is Homo Sapiens?
The Paradox of Being Human
I, Homo sapiens, am a walking contradiction. In the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of this planet, there has never been any other creature with the brainpower that I possess. Yet I do the stupidest things imaginable — me and my kind, that is. It seems like we can’t help ourselves.
For millions of years, a hefty amount of grey matter between the ears enabled our predecessors to survive. We hominins have done well for ourselves in a tooth-and-claw world, even though we have never possessed sharp teeth or big claws. We have prospered because we think.
Intelligence is our secret weapon. Intelligence enables us to adapt to nearly any situation. With it we can create powerful tools that more than compensate for our physical shortcomings. With it we can think, strategize, plan ahead. But all the other hominins in our family have gone the way of the dinosaur. Our closest cousins, the Neanderthals, disappeared only 40,000 years ago. Now we are the only hominins left in this world. Are we too destined to go extinct?
Against Nature
We call ourselves sapiens, but this might not be the right word to describe ourselves. “Sapient,” according to an online dictionary, means having or showing great wisdom or sound judgment. In short, sapient means…
