The Last Hominid’s Inheritance Of Extinction

That in the time of our being on this planet similar entities have come and gone, just as swiftly as we inevitably will in the grand scheme of things (given there’s no concrete evidence for or against an afterlife, this is the given assumption), is terrifying to us. 

Humanity evolved among differing groups of like-hominid creatures, most of which have since died out. What remains is us and non homo-genus species of primates. Similar bone structure and very close genetic coding aside, the difference is clear. Humans can tell an ape from a human as well as a chimp can a gorilla and a woman. Recognition is gut instinct. 

The road to understanding just how our species came along continues to this day. All the time gaps in the lineages are narrowed; and the observable adaptations and variations of animals over time and place through natural and eugenical means are constant. 

In a sense we probably study the traces of extinct lineages because we fear our own. Mortality Salience, as described by Terror Management Theory (TMT), goes to purport that given our conscious development we have an awareness of extinction as a possibility beyond the base biological prerogative of self-preservation. We fear death. 

We also fear things that liminally resemble human beings. The Uncanny Valley— now more prevalent as a concept as a result of the internet horror communities fascination with the aesthetics and developments in the field of AI in recent year— is the hypothesis grappling with that thought. Why things that appear human, but are clearly not; even if looking at it unnerves people makes sense, aesthetically at least on face value. Like attracts like, until there’s something amiss but you can’t quite place what. Think of a corpse at an open casket funeral. 

Throughout our cognitive existence, we have created many explanations for that occurrence in the scheme of the universe. Most have fallen into myths of antiquity and anthropological study, folklore, even reinterpretation to match up to modern understanding of the natural world. Currently, even while sitting on a flimsy scale, Darwin’s dice and Creationism sit at relative agreement. 

Myths surrounding the origin of not only our species, but the subsequent world and living existence as a whole; arose from our development asking two simple, fundamental one-word questions: How? Why? 

How is being filled in quite regularly and consistently now, there’s overall supporting evidence for the concepts currently known. Such actually goes to explain the Why. 

Coinciding with tales of the topic, are usually a form of a promised finishing point. For everybody. Everything. By our innate imperative towards neglecting thoughts, as TMT posits, around our own death, these myths take a more contextual and natural form. Alchemically, creation stories tended to dictate both the start and of everything and inevitable collapsing moments, with a usual promise of new continued existence thereafter. 

With that, our fear of death was able to be bypassed, and made simultaneously front and center as a societal understanding. 

Unlike other hominid species such as Neanderthals or Homo-Floresiensis, Homo-sapiens survived. However, with the advent of most relevant Creationism coming about in the last 2,000 years or so with the Abrahamic faiths taking hold, the model was set. Though not as prevalent due to a large amount of general Biblical literalism being negated in favor of synthesizing reinterpretations of Genesis to the modern understanding of evolutionary process and archaeology, it is not as commonplace the concept of a six to ten thousand year old ‘young earth’. 

There is a habit of either backtracking or whole negation in some cases. Ken Ham and his massive Ark exhibition being a poignant example. The closing gap in general base perspective, the debate between Creationism and evolution is rather irrelevant here (and overall done to death to a counterproductive conclusion all around at this point), aside the motives behind understanding the impulse. Permeating it, is human grandiosity around our cognitive development and resulting technological advancements in civilization, a touch of the Uncanny Valley and to tie it all together, Terror Management. 

Not-quite-homo-sapiens we inhabited lands with going the way of the dinosaurs reminds us we are mortal. If they could go extinct with the only ones to remember us, being us (as far as we know), so could we. Humans want to live on after death in some way or another. 

In the end, extinction is inevitable; not a positive or a negative just a natural inheritance.