Human Origins:

It is not uncommon to ask the questions: "Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from?"

These questions are usually pondered during changing points in a persons life, such as the death of a loved one or the birth of a new baby. Although I have always been curious, I admit I seriously asked myself these questions when I found out I would become a father. I was always proud of my own mixed ethnic heritage, but the mother of my son exponentially expanded that heritage due to our complete differences. So my son will have an ethnic heritage more diverse than most of the planet. But more on that another time.

I really expanded this website in an effort to chronicle those ethnic heritages. But what began as the simple question "Who am I?" became the more difficult question "Where did I come from?" It became more difficult because not only is there more than one answer, depending on regional ethnicities, but there is the bigger question "Where did we come from?" In the case of the first question for my son, and not uncommon, one answer is Mesopotamia: ancient Babylon, actually Sumeria before that.

At 6000 years old, Sumerian culture is the oldest documented civilization on the planet. That seems old in comparison to the "discovery" of the "western world" less than 600 years ago (y.a.), one tenth as old. It is well known that humans are much older than that, but I will use the founding of the first civilization as a reference point since it is the point at which humans evolved beyond social tool-using animals that cluster together for survival (e.g. monkeys and dolphins). After 6000 years of civilization, we are able to ask ourselves about our origins, look up answers in books or websites, and post comments about it to blogs using electron based communication devices (e.g. computers and monitors).

But what is it about 6000 years that is so unique as to enable such capabilities? In comparison, the last ice age ended about 12,000 y.a., or about 2 times as old. Before that, homo sapiens (modern humans) developed about 150,000 y.a., or 25 times as old. Wow. Given the last ice age started 70,000 y.a., and lasted about 60,000 years, this seems like a good starting point. Maybe there was something about the last ice age that isolated the human population and allowed it to develop the needed traits for intelligence and survival?

But wait. Homo Habilis, the first true human species, developed about 2 million y.a., or 333 times as old. During that time, fire and tools were used, and there were at least 3 other major ice ages that lasted just as long. In parallel with Homo Habilis, lived the proto-human Hominids Australopithicus Africanus and Robustus. But they developed 4 million y.a., or 667 times as old.

So in the span of 4 million years, humans developed the capabilities we posses today only one time in 667. What was different about the 667th try? That question can be extended to ask what was it that allowed hominids to develop in the first place? To understand why I would ask that question, I will put into context the age of the human species in relation to the age of life on earth. Mammals first appeared in the middle Mesozoic period about 175 million y.a. This is 29,167 times as old as the first human civilization, and 44 times as old as the first hominids. Land dwelling amphibians first developed in the middle of the Paleozoic period about 350 millin y.a., or 87 times as old as the first hominids. The first invertabrates appeared at the beginning of the Paleozoic period some 600 million y.a., or 150 times as old as the first hominids. The first microbes appeared 3 billion y.a., or 750 times as old as the first hominids.

For the sake of curiosity, I could even point out that the earth formed 4.5 billion y.a., 1125 times as old as the first hominids, and 7.5 times as old as the first invertabrates. While the Milky Way galaxy formed 10 billion y.a., or 16.7 times as old as the first invertabrates. So why did invertabrates form one time in 16.7? And in the span of that one time, why did hominids form one time in 150? Now we can see the small scale in asking why human civilization developed one time in 667, the span of hominid life.