Imagine a world where humans were once just another animal species. Survival was a constant struggle, and our ancestors relied on their superior senses and fine-tuned survival skills to thrive. But then, something changed. Humans became the architects of their own world, creating a sophisticated environment that catered to their every need. Food, shelter, and security became taken for granted, and the luxury of not worrying about survival was born.
Our story begins six million years ago when the tribe of homeonini split, and our relationship with the apes ended. It wasn't until 2.8 million years ago that the genus of homo, the first humans, emerged. However, we were not alone. When homo sapiens sapiens, modern humans, came into existence, there were at least six other human species around, cousins of comparable intelligence and ability. Imagine what it must have been like to live with aliens! Some of these other species were incredibly successful, like homo erectus, which survived for two million years, ten times longer than modern humans have existed. However, the last of the other humans disappeared around 10,000 years ago, and we don't know what caused them to die out.
Early humans used tools but did not make much progress for nearly two million years until they learned to control fire. Fire meant cooking, which made food more nutritious and contributed to the development of our brains. It also produced light and warmth, making days longer and winters less gruesome. Fire scared predators away and could also be used for hunting. A torched wood or grassland provided small animals, nuts, and tubers that were pre-roasted.
From 300,000 years ago, most of the different human species lived in small hunter-gatherer societies. They had fire, wood, and stone tools, planned for the future, buried their dead, and had cultures of their own. They spoke to each other, probably in a kind of proto-language, less complex than ours.
Around 50,000 years ago, there was an explosion in innovation. Tools and weapons became more sophisticated, and culture became more complex. This was due to humans having a multi-purpose brain and a more advanced language to communicate information with each other effectively and down to the last detail. This allowed much closer cooperation, and it is what really makes us different from any other creature on earth. Unlike, for example, rigid beehives or intimate but tiny wolf packs, as our brain evolved, we became able to expand knowledge quickly, preserve the knowledge gained over generations, and build on past knowledge to gain even deeper insights.
But it wasn't until around 12,000 years ago that everything changed very quickly. In multiple locations, humans developed agriculture, and individuals could increasingly rely on the skills of others for survival. This meant that some of them could specialize, and everything changed. The rise of the agricultural age made survival as a hunter and forager a thing of the past. Individuals could increasingly rely on the skills of others for survival. This meant that some of them could specialize. They worked on better...