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Article: The future of homo sapiens.(forecasting the species)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- December 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE COLLEAGUE with whom I teach astronomy likes to challenge our students with the question, "Are we any smarter than the ancient Greeks were?" We surely have a great deal more knowledge--especially about technology, medicine and the natural world--than Plato, Aristotle or Aristarchus had, but few of us equal them in brain power or logical reasoning. Nor have we surpassed Jesus in moral reasoning. Two or three millennia are not long enough for natural selection and variation noticeably to augment brain capacity. It took 2 million years to double the cranial volume of homo habilis to that of modern homo sapiens.
But approximately 200,000 years ago something new ...