Homo Sapiens – A name to live up to
Commentary ( 7 )
TOKYO —
In the 18th century, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus laid the foundations for binomial nomenclature, the classification of living things. Our species is called Homo sapiens, which means “wise man” or “knowing man.” Were we named correctly?
I do not refer simply to the recent discovery that some of us might have up to 4% of the Neanderthal genome in us; but rather, considering that we have had some 200,000 years to improve ourselves, whether we have peaked and if we are now on the way down, if not out. A renaming might be in order, perhaps Homo stupidus. It is not difficult to find examples of how our behavior does not justify our present name.
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7 Comments
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electric2004
How about Homo ludens, referring to the Nintendo Games for health activity.
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tranel
Let's see..... hmmmm, no there is very little intelligent life on planet Earth. Nothing to see here guys, move on.
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Sarge
Beam me up Scotty - there's no intelligent life here.
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gaijinfo
Favorite quote about human intelligence:
"There is a small minority that make things happen. There is a a slightly larger minority that watches things happen. Then there is the vast majority that stands by and says "What Happened?""
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