The "human revolution" is said to have occurred around 40,000 years ago?

with the emergence of advanced cultural forms, particularly artistic representations. If modern humans physically came into existence 150,000 to 200,000 years ago, why do you think it took 100,000 years or so for this so-called revolution to occur? Do you think there was continued physical evolution or are the advances simply the result of cultural evolution?The "human revolution" is said to have occurred around 40,000 years ago?
I think it must have been the result of physical evolution, which is to say a real change in how the brain functions.



The fact is even the most culturally deprived modern humans create art and stuff, yet there is no evidence of humans doing anything like that before then.The "human revolution" is said to have occurred around 40,000 years ago?
I think the lack of villages, and writing were probably to blame for the delay.



Today, we have houses, fire, ample food, books, songs, poems, etc. And we forget that there was a time when these things didn't exist.



Also, you have to remember that although all humans have the ability to be intelligent, we do not all reach this goal. It takes a great mind to think up a new idea--and then other great minds have to develop them.



Today, someone invents something and before a year goes by it has been honed and perfected. But in a world where there are no villages, or writing, and where people have to devote most of their time to hunting and gathering--a great idea can go generations before it finds another great mind to develop it.



The wheel didn't come into existence until the Romans. Perspective drawing didn't come into existence until the Renaissance. THATS A LONG TIME!! And the wheel is sort of a simple concept.



So basically, the reason it took so long for society to blossom is because it took a long time for knowledge to get around.The "human revolution" is said to have occurred around 40,000 years ago?
If your short, brutal, unforgiving life is totally encompassed in hunting and gathering, you don't have a lot of free time for leisure, contemplation, art, etc.



Here's what happened...

1. We came out of the trees, already a social primate.

2. Being a social primate meant that there was a hierarchy (pecking order if you will). Today we call it "morality" - acting correctly!

NOTE: Our basic modus operandi is - SPOIL OUR NEST AND MOVE ON! That is the basis of Human Nature...

3. Those at the top of the hierarchy knew what was needed to continue life, and to teach children to overcome nature's vicissitudes through rules embedded in their culture (all that is not physical about us, including language for example)...

4. Those that didn't obey the rules ended up dying before they procreated. They wandered away from the fire at night, they decided they could "jump off a cliff", they just didn't make it for whatever reason.

5. This means that rule followers and rule givers are what came out of that, over time.

6.The cultural rules allowed some groups to be more successful than others.

7. Picture this: our group followed some migratory animals, and had a route we took each year.

We spoiled our nest, just in time to move on. One year, we find another rather successful tribe was camping under OUR walnut tree. We realized, to get OUR walnuts, we'd need to kill the men, enslave the women, and coopt the children. Our tribe figured out how to kill at a distance, by throwing rocks and pointed sticks...

8. Over time, we dispersed, from our original homeland in East Africa, the pressure of successful tribes forcing tribes at the periphery to move out...and forcing them to adopt techologies to overcome natural limits.

9. For example, Inuit (aka Eskimos) didn't EVOLVE in the Arctic, but they did have 23 names for different types of snow and at least that many uses for human urine. In that environment, even waste is a huge resource...

10. So, we continued to drive, using our culture (read - technology), to be successful in every ecological niche on the planet.

11. We are the ultimate Alien Invader species!

12. So, by the time 40,000 years ago came along, we were forced into environments such as the Middle east, Australia, Northern Europe, etc.

13. And via technology, we had a bit more free time, no longer running from lions tigers and bears, now capable of driving a mammoth to it's knees, and building houses out of its bones!

14. Recently, in the past 1000 years or so, our technology has disrupted nature, not simply over come natural limits. The Roman need for ships meant that the forest that covered North Africa were cut down. And, the desertification spread into what we see today.

15. These days our technology does far more that overcome nature. It is overwhelming nature.



Yesterday I read that 25% of the plants on Planet Earth are endangered.



We are far more than 6,000,000,000 individuals on the planet. Over the next FORTY (40) years we will grow to over 9,000,000,000.



How many plants will be left by then?



And, yes, there was continued physical evolution, albeit not dramatic.



The point is, since Humans were around 100,000 years ago, you'd be able to breed with them even today...



We spoiled our nest, but there is no where left to go. Even near-Earth orbit has so much man-made space trash that NASA is nervous that servicing the Hubble Telescope was almost too dangerous to attempt...



We will, in our blind greed and individual self serving interest, destroy that which feeds us.



The irony is that we'll watch ourselves doing this, documenting it, and powerless to stop ourselves.