Sunday, August 31, 2014

A bleak view of the future …

… Irresponsible gods — (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

We’ve grown used to thinking of ourselves as the only species of humans. But for most of its history Homo sapiens shared the planet with several humanoid species – the Neanderthals being only the best known. “The earth of a hundred millennia ago was walked by at least six different species of man”, writes Harari. Suppose some or all of these species had survived alongside ourselves up to the present. What would become of the cherished sense that we are set apart from the rest of the natural world by having some peculiar transcendent value? Human uniqueness, Harari concludes, is a myth spawned by an accident of evolution.


  1. I can't access this behind the paywall, but this excerpt alone is incoherent. How does the fact that there were once "six species of man" or rather "humanoid species" negate the belief that humans are unique in some ways? He seems to be trying to suggest our dear departed cousins were both humans and non-humans at the same time.

  2. You only have to register and choose the free (limited) access to read it.