[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-39746-en":3,"doc-seo-39746-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},39746,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","How Did We Get Here","A reflective science-and-history discussion on human evolution using Harari’s Sapiens as a starting point. It traces the timeline from early hominids to modern Homo sapiens, including encounters with Neanderthals and evidence of Neanderthal genetic contribution (about 1–4%). The text explores why Neanderthals disappeared, weighing hypotheses around cognitive competition, violence, and intolerance. It links current risks to brain-emotion mismatches and outlines future examination of Default Mode Network and Dopamine Reward System circuits.","How did I get here?  \nAfter reading the book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (1), which traces the evolution of our species from the emergence of first organisms on planet Earth 3.8 billion years ago to our transcending the boundaries of our planet, I keep thinking about all the hominid species that have become extinct.  \nWe know that the Neanderthals evolved in Europe and the Middle East 500,000 years ago. We, Sapiens, appeared first in East Africa 200,000 years ago and by 70,000 years we had left Africa, making it all the way to Australia 45,000 years ago.  \nWe met the Neanderthals. We had sex and children with them (3) . Suddenly, 30,000 years ago the last Neanderthal died. What happened?  \nA first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published in 2010 (Fig. 1) . We know that Sapiens from Eurasia has acquired 1-4 % of her genome from Neanderthals.  \nDid Sapiens experience a sudden cognitive improvement allowing him to out-compete the Neanderthals?  \nAnother possibility is that competition for resources flared up into violence and genocide. Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark. In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect  \nor religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group. Would ancient Sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human  \nspecies? It may well be that when Sapiens encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history.  \nHarari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (pp. 17-18) . HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.  \nSapiens (we) are the only surviving member of the homo group.  \nOur time on the planet has been like an evolutionary blink of an eye.  \nWe are closing in on 7 billion members and the planet is showing signs of going unstable (global warming) . There is no guarantee that we will be around much longer.  \nThe reason appears to be the limitations built into our brain by the tinkering of evolution. Our emotional maturity lags way behind our intellectual powers.  \nIn future blogs we will examine the relentless activity of 2 brain circuits that have the potential of leading us beyond the tipping point: The Default Mode Network and the Dopamine Reward System  \n(1) Yuval Noah Harari (2014) Sapiens; A Brief History of Humankind. HarperCollins  \n(2) Green, R., Krause, J., Briggs, A., Maricic, T., Stenzel, U., Kircher, M., Patterson, N., et al. (2010). A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome. Science,328(5979), 710– 722  \n(3) Sankararaman, S., Mallick, S., Dannemann, M., Prüfer, K., Kelso, J., Pääbo, S., Patterson, N., et al. (2014) . The genomic landscape of Neanderthal ancestry in present-day humans. Nature, 507(7492), 354–357.","cbCaibVyimEIFigt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibVyimEIFigt","pdf",6122616,1,4,"English","en",105,"# Human evolution and the question of “how did we get here?”\n# Neanderthals, timelines, and genetic legacy\n# Why Neanderthals disappeared\n# Present risks and future neuroscience focus","[{\"question\":\"What key events are presented in the human evolutionary timeline?\",\"answer\":\"The text summarizes the emergence of early life, the appearance of Neanderthals in Europe and the Middle East, the rise of Sapiens in East Africa, and Sapiens’ migration out of Africa and into Australia.\"},{\"question\":\"What genetic evidence links modern humans to Neanderthals?\",\"answer\":\"A first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published in 2010, and Eurasian Sapiens are described as having acquired roughly 1–4% of their genome from Neanderthals.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the text propose Neanderthals may have gone extinct?\",\"answer\":\"It considers whether Sapiens gained a sudden cognitive advantage, or whether competition escalated into violence and genocide, leading to large-scale exclusion between 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