I enjoyed learning about the differences between each hominid species such as the
Homo sapiens, Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthalnsis, Homo Soloensis, & Homo Floresiensis.
It’s astonishing that just five million years ago, the hominid lines split because when the entirety
of Earth’s history is considered it represents just a small fraction. The Homo Erectus was
particularly interesting to study because they existed for over eight times the period Homo
Sapiens did. Two million years for any species is impressive, and the fact that the Homo Erectus
were the first humans to walk upright & use fire shows how critical those two elements are to our
survival as a species. Expressions of symbolic thought & symbolic tool making such as the
double-edged blades, are products of The Human Cognitive Revolution which took place
seventy thousand years ago. Sometimes I wonder if this never happened, and humans as a
whole continued to live as nomadic, hunter-gatherers to this day. If every human was doing it
rather than a few obscure cultures across the globe, there would be a lower population and a
more naturally fit society. I assume Humans would never get to the intelligence we are at today
without the Human Cognitive Revolution but I bet there are people out there who wish it never
happened.