Reply #13: Some interesting points...

[Dead_Parrot]

First off, we certainly have a long along way to go before we can be considered before are considered a success in evolutionary terms. The Nautilus and Horseshoe crab were around when we were experimenting with bearing live young...

The same can be said of human intelligence. Life has been around for around four billion years, the wheel for around seven thousand. We could be be described as an experiment to see if being smart is a good idea, or if nature should stick to big teeth and claws. No other animal has developed the sort of intelligence we now have, and it may be the whole thing is a bad idea.

That we replaced Homo neanderthalensis and the others, may be a case of us just being more prolific and violent: I'm read a few reports that conclude, based on brain cavity size, that Neanderthal man was smarter than we are: certainly if you look at colonisation during the last few centuries, it's the western europeans than come out on top. Not because of any mental superiority, just a tendancy towards organised violence.

Finally, we have the question of our future. Evolution will continue to act, and a million years from now it's probable that we will no longer be homo sapiens but some other unnamed homo...