By Tim Wood
I recently read an interesting article about why homo sapiens had survived the passage of thousands of years, while our close relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, vanished.
There’s a research study that suggests our ancient homo sapiens shared an evolving, genetic, brain variant that better protected us against the toxic effects of lead. By studying and testing fossilized teeth from 51 hominids from across Africa, Asia and Europe, scientists found acute lead exposure in 73% of the specimens.
This evidence suggests that lead exposure was widespread among ancient hominids and great apes up to 2 million years ago — much earlier than previously thought.
Lead is found in many natural environments – for example, water flowing through lead-bearing rocks, forming drinking pools as well as feeding plants, then consumed by our human ancestors. The research suggests that the brain damage that followed this exposure may have created a limit on how socially complex hominid brains could become by limiting language and social development.
Scientists created two sets of brain organoid. One set contained the homo sapien gene NOVA1, which plays a crucial role in neural development and the body’s response to lead. The other set had an extinct variant of NOVA1 from Neanderthals and other human ancestors. After exposure to small amounts of lead, the neuron development in the organoids found that the homo sapien NOVA1 gene tolerated the lead exposure much better than the other ancient, related genes.
Lead exposure was also found to disrupt a gene linked to language complexity and speech development, leading researchers to hypothesize that lead-resilient humans (homo sapiens) might have been able to develop more complex communications, gaining a huge evolutionary advantage over, say, Neanderthals and, of course, animals.
Language can be viewed as a superpower for our human species. We are able to organize societies and exchange ideas, allowing us to coordinate large movements. There is no evidence that Neanderthals could do that. So how did we get to where we seem to be now?
A large portion of our wonderful homo sapien species seems very anxious to have the rest of us accept bold-faced hypocrisy, lying and false narratives, along with non-transparent lifestyles in the form of NDA’s. We now have AI-generated, manipulated languages, which include videos and other entertainment, that now saturate our evolved societies. Perhaps our ever-present forever chemicals are doing a job on us in this modern world where lead may have failed in the past.
I’m not sure how many people may or may not agree with me, but with all the modern conveniences of easy, massive communications, what seems to be truly evolving (in my mind) is the “dumbing down” of modern homo sapiens and the societies (or tribes) in which they thrive and/or simply survive.
Here’s a new, modern example of what I think of as “dumbing down:” dictionary.com has chosen a new “Word of the Year” for our society that is derived from the rap song “Doot Doot (6/7)” by someone who goes simply by Skrilla … (I’m chuckling to myself as I write this) … It was chosen because it took off on social media, especially within the termed “Gen Alpha” generation (I think this is the generation that is unable to read cursive writing).
Better (or worse) yet, this word (6/7), has no actual cognitive meaning; it is, apparently, an inside joke used by the Gen Alpha’s as a social signal to show that the user is “in the know;” or, whatever meaning the individual wishes the word to have; (and here I thought they were just numbers!). Boy, no wonder us old fogies are left in the dust. However, maybe this concept is embraced within todays MAGA folks.
Words like fake, lie, truth, socialism, marxist, transgender, accountability, terriorism, crime, immigrant … the list is almost endless, that they, and especially Trump, use almost daily, taking on any meanings that they wish to assign to them. All one has to do is read any transcript of any of the rants that Trump has performed and you would become witness to the most talented “doublespeak” on the face of the planet; and it is no coincidence that this word has evolved from Orwell’s “1984” with it’s “doublethink” and “Newsthink.”
Amazon is now building a single data center in Indiana which is expected to consume 2.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity to perform. This is enough electricity to power one million homes. Think about that; and smaller (but still high) consumption-rate-data centers are being build all over the U.S., China and some of Europe. The more AI development, the higher the electricity consumption. And for what, really? My guess would be 80% entertainment and 20% positive human evolution.
Within today’s growing concerns with AI, I cannot help but thinking about the first of the “Matrix” franchise films. It was a big hit in 1999 and the writers decided it took place in the 22nd century (right around the corner). I loved the scene were Neo (the protagonist) wakes up in his life pod, which is one of billions, feeding the world’s electrical grid off their human body electrical pulses. The pods keep all the homo sapiens in a state of suspended animation; only in their minds are they living in a complete digital world created by their keepers … you guessed it, AI machinery.
Gen Alphas are also the ones starting to build deep and lasting friendships with AI Chat programs, to a worrying degree, according to many psychologists. They note a slow, steady growth in suicide rates. History may reveal what happened and why during this era; an era that is becoming more violent, stressed and uncompromising.
I’m presuming future generations will reflect upon this time with regret that their ancestors had, for a period, devolved communication skills simply because they did not “unplug” soon enough and did not, in the very least, regulate AI more.
Tim and Kristy Wood moved to Beaufort in 1974. He worked as a carpenter in both restoration and new home construction, as well as operating a shop specializing in custom woodwork, Wood on Wood Specs. He is semi-retired, involved with fine woodworking and formerly sat on the City of Beaufort Zoning Board of Appeals.
