Survival Bottlenecks and Ockham's Razor
Sam Aurelius Milam III
I've
seen several documentaries that report various theories about our ancestors.
One program reported that, 140,000 years ago, there was a survival bottleneck
that was caused by environmental changes in what we now call Africa.
Reportedly, at that time the entire human population of the world dropped
to 600 breeding pairs of people. Scientists claim that they were
all in Africa. Another program reported that, about 70,000 years
ago, after the Toba eruption near what we now call Sumatra, there was another
survival bottleneck for humans. Reportedly, the entire human population
of the world at that time included no more than 5,000 breeding-aged women.
Again, scientists claim that the survivors were in Africa.
Such
claims of survival bottlenecks among our ancestors are based on studies
of human DNA. Such survival bottlenecks have reportedly caused humans
to have a very small amount of genetic diversity, as compared to other
species. The scientists claim that we're all 99.9% genetically identical.
By contrast, they claim that other primates have as much as ten times more
genetic diversity than we do. That's very peculiar. I'm not
aware of any explanation by the scientists of why environmental changes
that reportedly threatened our ancestors with extinction, at least twice,
weren't a problem for other primates that were living in the same geographical
regions.
So,
every 70,000 years or so, humans reportedly go through a survival bottleneck.
Why are there survivors only in Africa? If the bottlenecks are caused
by environmental conditions in that part of the world then, after all of
the many human migrations out of Africa, why don't humans survive elsewhere?
Why aren't other African primate species similarly affected? Scientists
appear to have accepted without question that ancient Africa was the cradle
of human survival. There's a big world outside of Africa. People
ought to have survived elsewhere besides Africa.
Maybe
there weren't any bottlenecks at all. Near extinction of humans isn't
the only possible explanation for the small number of our ancestors.
In fact, the balance of the human population at the time need not have
died at all. Maybe 140,000 years ago, 600 pairs of people were selected
from the human population and subjected to genetic modifications.
Maybe their descendants were incapable of interbreeding with people in
the main population. Maybe 70,000 years later, something similar
happened to 5,000 women who were selected from the descendants of the first
group. Maybe those people are our ancestors and their descendants,
being unable to successfully breed with the main population, gradually
replaced it. The genetic result would be the same as if a bottleneck
had occurred and everybody else had died. Here's another consideration.
The recurring origination of other human species or subspecies only in
the region that we now call Africa suggests that other groups besides our
ancestors, only in that region, might also have been modified but that
those other modified groups didn't persist. Only ours did.
What
could cause such genetic changes and cause them only in Africa? Maybe
the aliens have a facility somewhere in Africa, periodically reactivate
it, and conduct genetic modifications of humans. It's as good an
explanation of the observed results as climatic changes and volcanic eruptions.
That is, in either case we'd have the same number of ancestors at that
time, and they'd all be in Africa. In that regard, I recommend my
ninth Ravings essay, Born
to Rave. Here's another important point to consider.
It's happened to our ancestors at least twice, and maybe more times than
that. It seems to happen about every 70,000 years. It's been
about 70,000 years since it most recently happened. There have been
a lot of alien sightings lately. It might be time for it to happen
again. As December 21, 2012 approaches, watch Africa to see if we're
scheduled for replacement.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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