IT IS sobering to think that if the Neanderthals had continued for 2000 more generations, they would still be sharing the planet with us today. Our other close relatives, the mysterious Denisovans, came even closer to surviving to modern times, and would have needed just 750 more generations of their lineage.
Instead, we Homo sapiens find ourselves alone, the sole survivors out of the seven or more types of human that we once shared a planet with. It is easy to assume that we killed the others off, but the most likely explanation for their demise is that dramatic swings in the climate left these other humans 鈥� who evidence suggests lived in small, isolated groups 鈥� vulnerable to dying out.
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Another common assumption is that our early Homo sapiens ancestors led lives that were 鈥渘asty, brutish and short鈥� in the words of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who, in his 1651 book Leviathan, reflected rather pessimistically on the nature of humans.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 survival of the brutish, but survival of the compassionate and sociable鈥�
But if the latest archaeological and genetic research is to be believed, we shouldn鈥檛 be so hard on ourselves. In fact, our soft skills 鈥� compassion, tolerance and the desire to make connections with others 鈥� may have been the secret to our survival through those climate swings when all the other types of human died out.
The social networks formed as a result of our emotional nature were a vital insurance policy for tougher times, allowing our early Homo sapiens ancestors to share not only food and resources but ideas. This, in turn, left us better able to adapt to the vagaries of the climate, as we discuss in our cover story.
It wasn鈥檛 survival of the brutish, but survival of the compassionate and sociable.
Now, the million dollar question is whether these emotional skills will get us out of hot water as the climate on our planet changes yet again. Will they be enough to ensure that in 2000 more generations we haven鈥檛 met the same fate as all the other types of human?
