THE FUTUREWhat lies in store for the human species
The human biped is an extraordinary animal. In evolutionary terms this strange species is still young. Its unparalleled success story is still unfolding, and doing so at ever-increasing speed. Itis impossible to predict the future with any precision, but it will certainly be exciting and full of major new discoveries. The genetic control of the ageing process will soon be understood. If they wish to, people will be able to live for a thousand years. Discoveries in the field of anti-gravity and possibly even the conquest of time travel will enable our species to explode beyond this small planet and on to other spheres. With our big brains and our insatiable curiosity, 'the sky's the limit' will seem like a modest boast.
All of this will be possible because we are the ape that never grew up, the ape that became fully adult while still retaining our childlike playfulness. Adult play is already evident in almost all aspects of human endeavour. Not merely in our greatest achievements in the arts and sciences, but also in our everyday life. The great chef converts the simple act of eating into an elaborate sensory experience. In the world of high fashion, the simple demands of comfort and modesty in clothing are almost completely overshadowed by matters of style and taste. The same is true of house furnishings and decoration. Even the highly practical world of architecture is not free from human playfulness. From the ornate capitals of ancient columns to the wild excesses of Disneyland castles, the game is played wherever the architect can persuade his clients to allow him to go beyond the needs of simple security and comfort.
We play sex games, called dancing. We play war games and hunting games, called sport. We play travel games, called tourism - when we visit places we have no need to visit but where curiosity demands that we poke our noses, if only for a few tantalizing weeks.
As soon as our basic needs are satisfied, as soon as we have gone 'beyond survival', we are off and running. The naked ape should really be rechristened the creative ape. At our best we remain, all our lives, childlike adults, ready at the slightest excuse to indulge in mature play. If ever we give this up and become depressingly earnest, pious adult-adults, we will have betrayed our great biological heritage as the most exuberant, most mischievously imaginative animal on this planet. When that happens, if ever it does, it will be time for us to move on and make way for some more attractive species to replace us. In the meantime the beautiful game of life is ours for the taking.
There may be those who feel that by calling man's greatest achievements 'adult play', I am belittling them. But I am not. My point is that we have never taken play seriously enough. To many people, our greatest achievement is to be found in the realms of such pursuits as commerce, technology, medicine, politics and economics. But these are merely means to one of two ends: either better human survival or better adult play. If successful commerce is concerned with, for example, food and drink, then it is either helping to satisfy hunger and thirst or it is helping to improve the subtle aesthetics of gastronomic play.
If modern technology brings us the benefits of more advanced creature comforts, we are extremely grateful but we do not sit around marvelling at the inner workings of our air-conditioning units or our refrigerators, our radios or our telephones. We simply use them as a means to many other ends. If medicine is concerned with curing diseases, that is not an end in itself but a means to a healthier life - to survive better or to enjoy adult play better.
The essential dream of modern politics and economics is to ensure personal freedoms and affluence for all. The unspoken concept behind this endeavour is to take the world's population 'beyond survival' and into the realms of advanced, mature, adult play.
Our greatest, most supremely human quality is our insatiable curiosity. We have gone from mud hut to moon rocket in just a few thousand years - a mere blink of the eye in evolutionary time. In the process we have transformed the face of the earth and built structures so impressive and so vast that some of them are visible from the moon to which we have travelled. We have done this because we have never stopped asking questions and, once we have found the answers, have used these to help us to ask even more.
Of all the many millions of animal species that have ever lived on this small planet we, the human animal, are by far the most extraordinary. But why us? Why have we gone so far when other close relatives, such as the gorilla and the chimpanzee, are left skulking in remote tropical forests? What is so special about our story that has enabled us effectively to rule the world? In a nutshell, it is because we were primates that stood up and became co-operative hunters. The fact that we were primates meant that we had a good brain and an unspecialized body, capable of many kinds of action. If we had possessed a smaller brain or a more specialized body we would have been unable to take the next step. That step was upward. We became bipeds. By rearing up we (literally) gained a free hand to exploit the environment. We were able to make tools and use them intelligently. We were then able to kill prey.
Hunting made us braver, less selfish, more co-operative (out of necessity, not morality), more able to concentrate on long-term goals and, above all, better fed. The new high-protein diet enabled us to become even more intelligent. Our urge to hunt cooperatively gave us the need to become more communicative. We developed language and, with it, an understanding of complex symbolism. With this symbolism we were able to replace ancient actions with modern equivalents. We could make one thing stand for another so convincingly that we were able to take the make believe world of children's play and develop our body language into acting, athletics and ballet; our hunting into sport, gambling, exploration and collecting; Our speech into singing, poetry and theatre; and our co-operation into altruism and generosity. We were the magic combination, the threshold-leaper, the risk-taker, the venerable child for all occasions.
With their often stunningly beautiful bodies, other animals are remarkable for what they are. We, with our puny, rather unimpressive bodies, are remarkable for what we have done. And what we will undeniably do in the future, for the story has hardly begun.
PEOPLEWATCHING / Desmond Morris
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