A little find

We are not alone.

Much of human morality is based on exceptionalism. We are alone the chosen of the creator, or singled out by evolution, the top of the tree, the pinnacle. We are different. Not quite apes, but the only members of our own branch of the evolutionary branch. We have been able to convince ourselves that there is a fundamental divide between man and animal and we are this side of it. Along with this belief comes the one that we may be able to escape evolution, that the process is done with us.

Of course, materialists such as me do not believe any such thing. We know only too well that we are just another species and that far from a tree, evolution has formed a bush.

Still, it is a deeply perturbing thing that we are not the only Homo. The discovery of Homo floresiensis, in the shape of specimens that are only 18 000 years old, prompts questions that I think are hard to answer.

Does it destroy our exceptional status? I fear it must. That little versions of us evolved alongside us shows us that we were (and are) prone to the same forces that all animals are. It should not escape our notice that the minimes could have survived and we could have become extinct. It would not have been the first time the biggest members of a family had been lost and the smaller survived. However, another question is, did we extinguish it? Our timelines overlap but there is no evidence we met.

I think it poses some questions for the religious. If God chose us, did he also choose the Floresians? Why did he let them die out? What is their relation to us in his eyes? If this animal is special to him, could others be?

Will there be DNA? How closely related are they to us? Could they really have been an alternative?

There is, of course, the exciting possibility that the Floresians did not die out. Perhaps, somewhere in a jungle...

These questions are just very small beginnings. The implications for our understanding of how we evolved are huge and will only be fully explored in the years to come.

What is clear is that this is a find on a par with Lucy and the team that discovered it are not Australian of the Year, they should sink this island into the deepest part of the Pacific and forget about it.

posted by Dr Zen @ 1:00 pm