15 Oct To predict the future, one must learn the past

Everyone tends to dream about being able to predict the future, especially when it deals with such short-term aspirations as winning the lottery. However, I am more concerned with the long-term evolutionary perspective that advances the human race. My time-frame is 10-1,000 years from now.

In my references to the past, I am looking well beyond the normal birth to death life-cycle experiences of individuals. My interest is in the origins of mankind and its historical development over time.

Our identities are often boiled down to ethnicity, race and nationality, which immediately leads to certain biases. Anthropologists tend to agree that all humans have evolved from the same species, called Homo Sapiens. In the human evolutionary chain, there were many other humanoid species but Homo Sapiens proved to be the most adaptable and intelligent.

Our ancestors figured out that they would have a higher chance of survival if they were able to migrate to other parts of the world with different climates and broader food supplies.

Skin color is often a cause for prejudice in modern societies but our ancestors who started the evolutionary journey from Africa were originally dark-skinned. According to genealogists, lighter skin colors are simply the result of a missing chromosome.

Gene architecture is complex, leading to differences and imperfections that made some individuals stand out in their tribes and communities. Darker skinned people mistakenly felt that lighter skinned individuals suffered from some unknown disease and tended to banish them from their enclaves. This prompted the latter to migrate and settle in far-flung geographical locations where their skin color was an advantage. This led to the exploration and settlement of the Eurasian, North American, Australian and other continents and archipelagos.

This sweeping anthropological history obviously requires much greater detail. It is meant to be a reminder that our survival over thousands of years is in a great part attributable to ancient societies that were able to live in a cooperative and respectful way for the greater good of all. In our human essence everyone on this planet is basically the same.