Friday 26 August 2016

Evolution of the Social Animal

Once upon a time in the world of the neanderthals, from a nook in a cave far away, emerged the homosapiens. They made it through the days on their survival instinct but for them just surviving wasn't enough. Being social animals they craved companionship with their fellow homosapiens.
How did they feed this craving? They created language - a means of communication to share information and to express themselves. Then after sometime they took it a step further. They converted their language into symbols which they could etch or sketch on a surface. This way they could communicate with those afar. Distance would not mean the end of a companionship.
Slowly but truly the social animal evolved. We decided that writing letters and waiting for them to be delivered took too long so we moved on to telephones for more pressing matters or simply for the desire to speak to a loved one.
But then all too soon we realised that the telephone was holding us back - making us stagnant when we make a call and especially when we are waiting for a call. We decided that communication should be mobile as we are and then someone somewhere invented the mobile phone. We as a species were ecstatic! This was everything we had ever wanted...or was it? As the craze for the new mobile phones mellowed down we realised that the telephones had a partner in crime: desktop computers. They kept us glued in the same seat for hours. We couldn't accept this. If telephones can be mobile then why can't computers be too?
From this idea evolved laptops and then the genius that is the smartphone. Even today we are moving forward. Inventing the next social machine. Social networks and video calling have already taken over our minds. What will we invent next? Perhaps a teleportation device so we can simply teleport to our loved ones whenever we desire or maybe a telecommunication device so we can share thoughts without speaking or writing.
Whatever it is one thing holds true: everything we have done as a species, we have done out of our social desires. Transport to meet loved ones (otherwise why not live at work?). Buildings to live together under a single roof, to have neighbors and feel a sense of belonging. Schools and educational institutes (rather than learning at home or in tuitions) to explore friendship and create memories which will never be forgotten. Even those who make discoveries in science do it not only for understanding the universe but also for acknowledgement amongst their peers and hopefully the world. Perhaps the biggest proof of our need for companionship is our desire to explore the stars for extraterrestrial species.
The homosapien is a social animal. Our evolution has shaped this planet as we know it. Alone we are nothing but together we dominate the Earth.