My Theory of How human nature came to humans

The earliest of human ancestors appeared five to seven million years ago. So proclaims experts, regarding the beginnings of the human race. They then spread to all parts of the globe. When and where did such human like beings acquire and show the tell tale marks of humans? Creative thinking and symbolic transactions that can lead to a disconnect between the thoughts and the deeds. Or the propensity to think without the need to act, or the tendency to jump into any act, without thinking. Otherwise, were they humans in all respect, right from the first day? If so, why do we have this large gap from millions of years back when human race began, to a few millenniums BCE since when we have some kind of signs of human existence, with no trace of the race? And why did the trace suddenly appear, when it appeared?

Great many scientists are seized of the issue of human origins. But the prevailing sentiment is one of uncertainty or confusion. Many ideas are taking rounds. A fundamental shift in brain wiring, changes in the conditions of life, and the new experiences brought by the use of symbolic representation, are some of the prime ones.

As I mentioned above, our known history goes back only to a part of this long period. A few thousand years BCE is the earliest time, of which we have some idea, based on archeological evidence. What happened to the millions of years our ancestors had already spent? Why is there no evidence pointing to some apparition resembling a human? If we are to look for a link between our earliest ancestors who lived millions of years back, and the earliest identifiable humans who lived a few thousand years BCE, what should we be looking for? Let us examine these questions in the light of humans having a clear ‘nature', specific to the race.

I think as long as nature was natural in form, no evidence of a living being’s existence need be remaining for ever. We can’t see any remnants of scores of creatures that finish its life in short intervals, many generations of which would have passed through in one man’s lifetime. So also is the case of humans before the days of historical records. And we have no data about their living style.

But when it comes to humans since the days of known history, things take a different turn. I think that is because, from that time, for some reason, humans started leaving their ‘signatures’ on whatever they do. Also, this happens to be, at least since those times, transitory in nature. That is to say, one’s priorities in life, rather the living style itself, would have been continuously changing, making whatever sign people happen to observe regarding other generations, vastly different, and therefore something easily noticeable. And we have quite a few ideas regarding the life followed by our ancestors, from the present times till the days of known history.

But when we think of the earliest humans, things take another turn. With an idea to supplement the scant details regarding their lifestyle, let us study humans before the dawn of history, a little more closely. Our forefathers of those eras would have been much different from what we are now, and it is safe to imagine them as closer to their real stock. Which means, their lifestyle would have resembled that of their forefathers, say, apes. Logically, in that case there shouldn’t be any tell tale marks left of their existence, as the human habit of mementos or souvenirs is yet to begin. Also, our forefathers of that era would have lived a life without ‘humanness – the inclination to leave one’s mark in everything’. Perhaps that is why, we are at a loss when it comes to things that could have thrown light on our distant past.

What can this tell us? I think this point to a giant singularity in evolution. This forced one product of evolution among scores of other forms of life, to acquire this particular twist in personality – humanness. Something of significance has taken place with the world, or man, or both, that has caused human to become unique. For example, having a desire to leave historical trails. Or a penchant for finding happiness in an unpredictable manner, like engaging with things that can lead to personal discomfort or harm. Or the capacity to alter one’s feelings in whatever way one wish, that too, sometimes, even for abstract reasons. Which is nothing but inventing both feelings and its causes, where none exist.

I have already given an explanation for many, rather non-intuitive peculiarities observed in humans, in my book ‘The Unsure Male’. Where, such character traits are shown to be a part of the human remedy for the incompatibility between males and females, especially for mating. We can combine those findings with the discovery of ‘humanness’ by humans, and decode our earliest days.

Humans would have started their life just like all other forms of life. Also, they would have been using all their faculties to entertain themselves, just like all other forms of life. Being adept at life, just like all other forms, humans would have found no reason to dwell on things unrelated to one’s life or living. Millions of years might have passed like this till one of them realized the power of abstraction. (Who would have been on the lookout for some remedy for the post-mating agony!) That was the birth of ‘humanness’, and thereafter, history was never the same.

This might have happened around 3000 BC, which can be thought of as the time when historical signs made their appearance. Life however continued with a very high mortality rate putting a check on population increase. Next major singularity, which had the power to alter human future substantially, was industrial revolution. This, needless to say, has come as a result of the large scale use of abstraction to escape from the woes. It worked well, the populace happened to get rising levels of comfort, which encouraged people to explore this avenue further. A large collection of entertainments evolved, each consolidating its position as a unique element of the human. And faculties like music, philosophy, art and sports keep adorning the race, which is promoting more instances of abstraction.

Over time, abstraction became the primary nature of humans, all other facets of human expressions taking a subdued position. Thus we have, depending on the source or trigger of the current instance of abstraction, human societies controlled by arts, science, religion, politics, love, or terror. (We are of course finding fault with religion, politics, etc. But, the real culprit behind our miseries, as well as the driving force behind our progress, is nothing but our propensity for abstraction.)