Oh, how far we have come. From capturing energy by gating electrical charges and osmolarity to synergistic multicellular communities rolling as unified masses of biomatter. We may feel separate from the world and its inhabitants, but we are still at the mercy of entropy. In fact, we are accelerating it by increasing the human population and by proxy the amount of inherent complexity. By avoiding death, we are creating a greater wave of impending destruction for everything around us. This may sound nihilistic, but this is the way of the universe. It sounds very mystical and woo-woo, I know. I’m not saying there is some all-knowing being or the presence of fate. I’m just saying that the heat death of the universe looks to be inevitable. I apologize, that got dark quick. Back to the origin of sapiens!

The recorded history of human intelligence is comparatively short when stacked up against the origin of life itself. One minute we were climbing trees and scavenging for survival, the next we were conquering the stars and fearing the imposed destruction of the planet. So, what caused this sudden “world domination?” 

In the first section we will summarise the proposed biological theories as to how humans pulled away from competing with the other animals. Next, we will look deeper into the importance of social interaction for survival and then the technology that threw gasoline on the fire of human population growth. Finally, we will take the perspective of an extraterrestrial visitor trying to make sense of our strange species.