Rooting for Australopithecus

Reading about the evolution of man and it's hard to regard the world with the same blasé attitude. Plumbing, toasters, maple syrup, potted plants, bird feeders, the cloud, we have far exceeded the expectations of our ancestors, if indeed they had such things as expectations.

To this homo sapien sapien, fascination seems to be a common experience. Fascination with the material world. And the question 'why' is one she loves to ponder - it seems to illuminate to her the interconnectedness of all things, and this interconnectedness... I would call it "important" to her. She is "inspired" by it.

Skin, for example, there it is, on every mammal. It works to allow what is happening to happen. And what is happening? I cannot know, but I can know that I can't know. I can know that I only see a small spectrum of what is happening. Knowing this does not change it. Even with infra-red glasses, I am seeing information translated into the language that my eyes can understand. I can know it's there, but I cannot know what is there, only that it seems to be something that is not a part of "me." Skin.

The senses, which allow experience to happen. It is not enough for this creature to want to understand what is going on - be it seeing infrared, or seeing into the future, she wants to know why she wants to know. What a curious creature she is to be curious about the world, and about herself. What a strange existence to be in a cage, to know that you are in a cage, to want out of the cage, to be able to imagine being something that you are not.

I just wonder if Australopithecus would have been as philosophical. Maybe she wasn't. Maybe that's why she died off.