Being human and stuff

[Undertoad]

My sciencegasm in the genetics/paleontology connection left me with a lot of naval-gazing on what it really means to be human.

Our entire notion of race is the result of 100,000 years of genetic change... sometimes as little as 25,000 years. In that time period, the human race evolved where they wound up.

Racial features often differ according to the conditions necessary to live in a particular climate/area. To spend time in the direct harsh sunlight, have melanin protect your skin so it doesn't burn. To spend time in the snow, have squinty eyelids that protect against the harsh whiteness of sun against white.

Are racial differences partly biological? When we mate, in our animal nature, are we selecting for types on the basis that our offspring will survive?

In the whole genus-species hierarchy, humans are sort of unique in that there aren't many different types of us. Sentience - memory - consciousness - whatever it is that makes us unique as a species, is a special and marvelous advantage, evolutionarily speaking.

And to find that we all came from an initial population of 10,000, that just makes us even more special. If you're narcissistic, the news couldn't be better. Homo sapiens is really fucking awesome. We are SPECIAL. The bit of our brains that let us get together and share information and remember stuff? It makes us the best of all the species, and we automatically win.

And by the way, racism is now entirely meaningless; we all came from the same bunch anyhow; if you have the right number of chromosomes, you probably have equal potential of learning, and most of our differences are probably cultural.