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| Image is copyright 2015 by Joshua Michail. All Rights Reserved. |
FROM: To Make A Better World; The handbook for good secular living in the modern era.
by Joshua Michail.
Excerpt #3, from: On Humanity.
(NOTE: ellipses indicates skipped content. A few samples
from the taxonomic list are included here, in the book the list is
full.)
…
Social and technological progress in the past, perhaps, forty
thousand years has been decreasingly of importance to the survival of
individuals physiologically, and to the species in general. Yet, this
constant progress has proven to be quite advantageous and finally to
the betterment our species. After we first made progress to improve
our chances of survival we then began to make progress to improve our
living conditions. Though there is some overlap in the different
forms of progress – and both forms of progress continue today –
the shift in emphasis has occurred. Today progress is mostly a matter
of creating more opportunities for people, more justice and equality,
as well as making things easier. We do still work toward better
medicines to make more people healthier and we improve life
expectancy and longevity. Unlike Homo Habilis, a species that lived
for a million years without ever creating new tools, we did improve
on our technology and still do. We practice invention and innovation.
We created better spears, then we created atlatls – a spear-thowing
tool. We created bows and arrows. Then we learned to control fire. We
were then able to hunt better and from farther away from our prey. We
were able to make sure we had contained fires so we kept warm at
night and kept predatory animals away while we slept. We progressed.
We then figured out how to tame plants and animals. We started to
become farmers, and we kept cows and sheep where we could take milk
and meat to eat, and leather and wool to wear. We started forming
villages, with homes and farms. This also gave us an advantage in
protecting ourselves against predatory animals. Then we turned
villages into towns, and then cities. We developed irrigation canals
to bring water to our farms and for us to drink and wash with. All of
this was progress that made our lives easier and that gave our
species the survival edge we needed. Then we made more progress by
inventing written language.
Because our towns grew into cities, rules of behavior
became more important than before. Behavior was important before, but
with more people living together it became more so. We then invented
codes of behavior, much of which can still be read in holy books.
This codification was possible because of the written word. Now more
people could learn the same rules. Morality became more and more
uniform over time because of this progress. This was a step forward
for justice, albeit the ancient rules now appear, quite obviously,
out of date and unjust. There exists a double-edge to the progress of
morality and writing. Unfortunately, people still believe in the
archaic cults of thousands of years ago, though it did help to make
for a more uniform system without as much ambiguity, for the most
part. Progress is moving beyond the Bibles and Qur'ans. An
illustration of how progress keeps moving forward and yet is gradual
is the fact that the percentage of religious people in our global
population is dwindling. This progress makes us different from other
animals in an important way. We are so much like other animals in
almost every other way, but that we make progress in our technology,
in our values, and our philosophies. This distinguishes us.
… Humans, specifically, are classified in the
following scientific taxonomy;
…
Kingdom:
Animalia
Defined as multicellular organisms, for which the body
plans become fixed as they develop. The Cambrian Explosion, 542
million years ago, saw the rapid diversification of animals. Prior to
580 million years ago virtually all life on Earth was single-cell,
possibly arranged into colonies, but then multicellular life began to
evolve. Organisms that seem more like us and other animals began to
appear. During the Cambrian Explosion the rate of evolution was an
order of magnitude faster than previously.
…
Super-class:
Tetrapoda
This super-class first appeared around 395 million years
ago. A tetrapod is an animal with four limbs used for movement, in
humans it's two legs and two arms. Sarcopterygii is a group of
gnathostome vertebrates, which appeared around 418 million years ago
and still exist. It was an ancient specie within this group that is
the ancestor of all tetrapods. Though the group sarcopterygii, are
also called lobe-finned fish. While the majority of tetrapods are
animals that live on land, including amphibians and birds, the living
species of sarcopterygii include lungfish. Lungfish extract oxygen
from water through their gills like other fish, but additionally they
are able to breathe air. The early ancestors of us and lungfish were
only able to very briefly move on land, but by being able to breathe
air could stay out of water for a long time. Over many generations
their fin lobes became stronger to support their weight on land
better. This was the beginning of the evolution of legs. It is the
lungfish ancestors that are also our ancestors, the first to start
coming on to land. Eventually the four lobed fins on the bottom would
evolve to become legs.
…
Family:
Hominidae
Around 15 to 20 million years ago, our family of
Hominidae separated from what became the Hylobatidae family, which
includes the Gibbons. Our group, the Hominidae, includes several
species alive today, which are: Chimpanzees, Gorillas and Orangutans.
The other family, Hylobatidae, are known as “lesser apes”, while
us Hominidae are commonly called the “great apes”. Hominidae are
able to use hands for gathering food and nesting materials, and at
least occasional tool use. The smallest of Hominidae are the bonobos,
at about 30 to 40 kilograms in weight, gorillas are the largest,
weighing up to 180 kilograms. Generally the great apes are large
compared to almost all other primates, and we're all without tails.
The average adult human is around 54 to 64 kilograms. Though the
degree to which sexual dimorphism is manifested in each species
varies, generally there is significant and noticeable differences
between the sexes. The males tend to be stronger and have more mass
than the females. The species of our family tend to able to walk on
two legs, however outside of humans, most species usually walk on all
fours, on arms and legs. Unlike most quadrupedal species however,
gorillas, bonobos, chimps and orangutans when walking on all fours
they have their knuckles down on the ground.
©
2015, Joshua Michail, all rights reserved.
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