A MERE CHANCE- THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

We, Homo sapiens with no significant physical strength, have conquered the world and acquired the top position in the food pyramid. A hundred thousand years ago several species of human beings existed. But today there is only one. So, what was it that led to our survival and drove our siblings to extinction?

The Neanderthals in the Middle East were among the last of all our siblings to die out. They became extinct around 30,000 years ago. The Neanderthals were stronger, stockier and more muscular compared to modern human beings. In fact, in the first recorded encounter between Sapiens and Neanderthals, a hundred thousand years ago, Sapiens lost. The Neanderthals were better. They were more powerful, and more adapted to the environment. Hence, the Sapiens were driven out, leaving the Neanderthals as masters.

However, beginning from 70,000 to 30,000 years ago, Sapiens started doing something special. This was the age associated with the invention of boats, oil lamps, needles, arrows and bows. And for the second time, Sapiens left Africa and entered the Neanderthal territory. This time they drove Neanderthals not only from the Middle East, but from the face of Earth.

The Homo sapiens who appeared on East Africa a 100,000 years ago looked a lot like us in physical appearance and had the exact same brain size. But they had very limited cognitive abilities as a result of which they couldn’t think and talk like us. However, the Sapiens who drove the Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago, talked and thought like us. The appearance of new ways of talking and thinking, between about 70,000 and 30,000 years ago is called the cognitive revolution. It is believed to the first biggest revolution- the revolution that started history- because of our capabilities of imagining, creating myths, legends, stories and morals. Thus, History began with the cognitive revolution.

With the advent of cognitive revolution, Sapiens could transform their social structure, the nature of their interpersonal relations and their economic activities. They acquired the technology, the organisational skills and even the vision necessary to break out of the African world and settle elsewhere. They began cooperating in large numbers. When the Sapiens invaded the Middle East, The Neanderthals were outnumbered 10 to one and were pushed to less favourable areas where food and shelter were more difficult to find. Resource competition and interbreeding wiped out the Neanderthals in this scenario.

Cognitive revolution has been particularly difficult to explain. There were no significant changes in the size of the Sapiens’ brain. So, what did account for the amazing evolution in our cognitive abilities? Many scholars believe that it was a genetic mutation that caused our brain to split into two parts leading to our enhanced abilities. It is aptly called the Tree of Knowledge mutation and with it began the era of Sapiens.

Now, why did this remarkable change occur to us and not any other species? To the extent of our knowledge, it was mere chance that led to the mutation. If this tiny biochemical change hadn’t occurred, we may have remained insignificant to this day and Neanderthals may have become the masters of the world.

The fact remains thus, a pure chance is what that led us to our sophisticated language, the agricultural revolution and the scientific revolution. It became the root for the advent of the world of science and technology and to everything that the world is today.