The solitude of Sapiens in the face of diversity
We are celebrating Lucy’s fiftieth anniversary. At that time, in 1974, the so-called evolution of Man was conceived in a linear way and according to a principle of hominization leading to the triumph of Sapiens. Since then, our world, like Lucy’s, has changed considerably. There were Australopithecus peoples; there were the first humans and there were, 100,000 years ago, yesterday, several human and equally human species cohabiting on Earth. They exchanged genes, tools, fragments of languages and cultures. What we are comes from these exchanges with the Neanderthals, the Denisovans and others to be discovered. Sapiens remains the only child of the diversities of yesteryear, for his lineage and also all the other more or less close lineages, such as the great apes. So, what happened? The global success of Sapiens has resulted, over the millennia, in the elimination, at first unconsciously, of the closest species, then of all other lineages. Awareness is slow in coming, as shown by the last COP meeting on biodiversity in Cali. But no species evolves alone; it is coevolution. So, what future for Sapiens?