ABSTRACT
Humans have come a long way in the last 100,000 years-from their huntergatherer past, hardly dissimilar to that of the modern higher primate, to a fire-using and word-using globetrotter who can wholly eradicate a viral pathogen and use artificial satellites to provide instant access to a colossal compilation of human knowledge. Having made the same hand ax for about a million years, we expect our modern tools to be superseded within a decade or two. In population terms we have gone from a few million to a few billion. Whereas we once thought of tradition as a guide to the future, now the brakes have been removed, and we have acquired the opportunity to demonstrate the full power of our creative minds. Our past can also be described as a litany of disasters, a succession of devastations, and a subjugation to the tyranny of the spirit world. Yet in spite of these burdens we have prospered.
