title: The rise and fall of Homo sapiens sapiens.
abstract: Human beings have broken the ecological 'law' that says that big, predatory animals are rare. Two crucial innovations in particular have enabled us to alter the planet to suit ourselves and thus permit unparalleled expansion: speech (which implies instant transmission of an open-ended range of conscious thoughts) and agriculture (which causes the world to produce more human food than unaided nature would do). However, natural selection has not equipped us with a long-term sense of self-preservation. Our population cannot continue to expand at its present rate for much longer, and the examples of many other species suggests that expansion can end in catastrophic collapse. Survival beyond the next century in a tolerable state seems most unlikely unless all religions and economies begin to take account of the facts of biology. This, if it occurred, would be a step in cultural evolution that would compare in import with the birth of agriculture.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tudge
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D011153:Population