Descent or Ascent of Man?

Darwin wrote a great historic book when he penned Descent of Man in 1871 as followup to Origin of the Species in 1859. It describes many early beginnings and tribes of Man, "half-human" or descended from "ape-like creatures" as proven by him based on his naturalist's observations.

It could have just as easily been called, I think, more accurately, "The Ascent of Man" or the ascent of Homo Sapiens as opposed to other genuses. Darwin proves his theory of evolution using two prime methods, the law of natural selection, and the law of sexual selection and its corollary -- the principle of inheritance, i.e. inherited traits.

Darwin particularly favors the development of the Quadrumana tribe, to quote Darwin, "The greater number of naturalists who have taken into consideration the whole structure of man, including his mental faculties, have followed Blumenbach and Cuvier, and have placed man in a separate Order, under the title of the Bimana, and therefore on an equality with the orders of the Quadrumana, Carnivora, etc. Recently many of our best naturalists have recurred to the view first propounded by [Carl] Linnaeus [1707-1778 Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist], so remarkable for his sagacity, and have placed man in the same Order with the Quadrumana, under the title of the Primates. The justice of this conclusion will be admitted: for in the first place, we must bear in mind the comparative insignificance for classification of the great development of the brain in man, and that the strongly marked differences between the skulls of man and the Quadrumana (lately insisted upon by Bischoff, Aeby, and others) apparently follow from their differently developed brains. In the second place, we must remember that nearly all the other and more important differences between man and the Quadrumana are manifestly adaptive in their nature, and relate chiefly to the erect position of man; such as the structure of his hand, foot, and pelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his head." [Source: Wikipedia]

In other words, Home Sapiens developed two hands and two feet, not all four being prehensile as the apes, and man's upright position and burgeoning brain, made all the difference.

So descent or ascent, egress or regress, as the case my be, natural selection made man fully human at some point, and distinct from his ape "progenitors." This to me signifies that man, from the earliest 4-legged crocodile to leave the seas, until present time, was destined to be Homo Sapiens. Homo means "the genus of bipedal primates that includes modern humans and several extinct forms, distinguished by their large brains and a dependence upon tools." Sapiens means "of, or pertaining to, modern humans." 

My point is this, I wonder if we have outgrown the term "modern," and become that next future species, "Homo Futurians," especially based on the explosion of scientific and technological advances in the last half-century? Especially since those tools are more and more virtual or software-based? It's an interesting question, don't you think?

Best, Rod
Copyright Rodney Richards 2014

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