What Happened Before History? Human Origins
The world we live in feels normal, ordinary. It feels like this is just how humans exist and always existed. But, it’s not. Never before have we humans lived in a world as sophisticated and engineered to our needs as today. Giving us the luxury to forget about ourselves and not worry about survival. Food, shelter, security – all of this is, more or less, taken for granted. But we’re a special few; for more than 99.99% of human history, life was completely different. And there’s no such thing as just one human history. Our story begins 6 million years ago, when the tribe of hominini split and our relationship with the apes ended. 2.8 million years ago, the genus of homo, the first humans, emerged. We like to think about ourselves as the only humans, but this is far from the truth. When we, homo sapiens sapiens, came into existence 200,000 years ago, there were at least six other human species around. Cousins of comparable intelligence and ability, which must have been incredibly scary, kind of like living with aliens. Some of them were very successful. Homo erectus, for example, survived for 2 million years. Ten times longer than modern humans have existed. The last of the other humans disappeared around 10,000 years ago. We don’t know what caused them to die out. Modern humans have at least a few percent of neanderthal and other human DNA, so there was some mixing, but certainly not enough to be a merger between species. So we don’t know if our cousins went away because they lost the battle over resources, or because of a series of minor genocides. Either way, only we remain. Back to the beginnings of humanity. 2.8 million years ago, early humans used tools, but did not make a lot of progress for nearly 2 million years. Until they learned to control fire. Fire meant cooking, which made food more nutritious, which contributed to the development of our brain. It also produced light and warmth, which made days longer and winters less gruesome. On top of that, it not only scared predators away, it could also be used for hunting. A torched wood or grassland provided small animals, nuts and tubers that were pre-roasted. From 300,000 years ago, most of the different human species lived in small hunter-gatherer societies. They had fire, wood and stone tools, planned for the future, buried their dead, and had cultures of their own. But most importantly, they spoke to each other. Probably in a kind of proto-language, less complex than ours. If we had a time machine, how far would we be able to go back, steal a few babies and raise them today without anyone noticing that they’re a bit different? There is much debate. Anatomically, modern humans emerged 200,000 years ago, but probably 70,000 years is as far as we could travel back and still snatch a behaviourally modern human. Before that, the babies would probably lack a few crucial gene mutations Necessary to build a brain with modern language and abstract thinking abilities. At some point, around 50,000 years ago, there was an explosion in innovation. Tools and weapons became more sophisticated and culture became more complex, because at this point, humans had a multi-purpose brain, and a more advanced language to communicate information with each other effectively, and down to the last detail. This allowed much closer cooperation, and is what really makes us different from any other creature on Earth. Not our comparatively weak bodies and inferior senses, but the ability to cooperate flexibly in large groups, unlike, for example, rigid beehives or intimate, but tiny wolf packs. As our brain evolved, we became able to do something, life had been unable to do up to this point. One – expand knowledge quickly. Two – preserve the knowledge gained over generations. Three – build on past knowledge, to gain even deeper insight. This seems daft, but until then, information had to be passed on from generation to generation, mostly through genetics, which is not efficient. Still, for the next 40,000 years, human life remained more or less the same. There was little to build upon. Our ancestors were only one animal among many. Building a skyscraper without knowing what a house is… is hard. But while it is easy to be arrogant in our attitude to our ancestors, this would be ignorant. Humans 50,000 years ago were survival specialists. They had a detailed mental map of their territory, their senses were fine-tuned to the environment, they knew and memorized a great amount of information about plants and animals. They could make complicated tools that required years of careful training and very fine motor skills Their bodies compared to our athletes today just because of their daily routines, and they lived a rich social life within their tribe Survival required so many skills that the average brain volume of early modern humans might even have been bigger than it is today As a group we know more today, but as individuals our ancestors were superior to us But then around 12,000 years ago, in multiple locations, humans developed agriculture. Everything changed very quickly. Before, survival as a hunter and forager required superb physical and mental abilities in all fields from everybody With the rise of the agricultural age, individuals could increasingly rely on the skills of others for survival. This meant that some of them could specialize. Maybe they worked on better tools, maybe they took time to breed more resistant crops or better livestock, Maybe they started inventing things. As farming got more and more efficient, what we call civilization began Agriculture gave us a reliable and predictable food source, which allowed humans to hoard food on a large scale for the first time, which is much easier to do with grains than meat, The food stock required protection, which led to communities living together in tighter spaces First, early defense structures were built, the need for organization grew The more organized we got, the faster things became efficient Villages became cities, cities became kingdoms, kingdoms became empires Connections between humans exploded which led to opportunities to exchange knowledge Progress became exponential About 500 years ago the Scientific Revolution began Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Biology, and Chemistry transformed everything we thought we knew The Industrial Revolution followed soon after laying the foundation for the modern world As our overall efficiency grew exponentially, more people could spend their lifetime contributing to the progress of humanity Revolutions kept happening. The invention of the computer, its evolution into a medium we all use on a daily basis, and the rise of the Internet shaped our world It’s hard to grasp how fast all of that happened It’s been about 125,000 generations since the emergence of the first human species About 7,500 generations since the physiologically modern humans saw the light of day 500 generations ago, what we call civilization began 20 generations ago, we learned how to do science And the Internet became available to most people only one generation ago Today we live in the most prosperous age humanity has ever experienced We have transformed this planet, from the composition of its atmosphere to large-scale changes in its landscape and also in terms of the other animals in existence. We light up the night with artificial stars and put people in a metal box in the sky Some have even walked on our Moon We put robots on other planets We’ve looked deep into the past of the universe with mechanical eyes Our knowledge and our way of acquiring and storing more of it has exploded The average high school student today knows more about the universe than a scholar a few centuries ago Humans dominate this planet, even if our rule is very fragile We are still not that different from our ancestors 70,000 years ago But your lifestyle has existed for less than 0.001% of human history From here on, there’s no saying what the future holds for us We’re building a skyscraper, but we’re not sure if it’s standing on a solid foundation or if we’re building it on quicksand Let’s leave it with that for now The next time you miss your train, your burger is not hot enough, or someone cuts in line Remember how special this made-up human world is Maybe it’s not worth being upset about all those little things. This video was supported by audible.com/nutshell In the making of it, we used the book “Sapiens: a brief history of humankind” as one of the major sources. If you want to get to it, or any other for free and support us, go to audible.com/nutshell and get a free 30-day trial It’s so hard to read books when you have the internet, so we can at least listen to them In general, we listen to a lot of audiobooks while designing our videos, so we can highly recommend audible OK, so this was our first take on making a history-related video we’d love to make much more of them, but they take even more time than our average video. So we might do 3 or 4 a year. Your feedback’s very welcome here Thank you so much for watching,
and if you want to support us directly, you can do so on Patreon. It really helps us out. While you think about it, here are more videos, if you need more distraction.
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I see no birds wow
nobody know exactly when our civilization started .. i think we had some advanced level of civilization even before 50 or 100 thousands yrs.. we really dont know and scientist are such an arrogant human being that they cant accept the honestlh to say we dont actually know
Looking at the thumbnail: Oh look! It's Childish Gambino
Thank you Lebanon and the Natufians for getting humanity out of the caves and Iraq and the Sumerians for bringing civilization.
Thx guys
I can imagine hunter gatherers thinking "kids these days rely to much on farming"
So we are all the 1%
And then God said “Let there be light”.
So….no one spotted the Sailor Moon wand?
It took 200.000 years to get efficient enough to destroy humanity within less than 300 years. Maybe the next human race will learn from our faults.
Love the bots love the crops stop killing us
Agreed
70,000 years ago would be after humans started spreading out of Africa and had already spread around the continent. Incredibly recent. So does this mean that all modern humans are descended from an African population 70,000 years ago and the actual “out of Africa” really only started after that?
Creationists left the chat
Proud to be human
this video starts off with bs.
At this point we're going to revolutionize more than 2 times in a generation soon.
Prepare for it guys, u ain't having no jobs soon so improvise now.
I am a white straight male born in the West. I won the goddamn Lottery of life . Thank you Jesus ! Ha ha ha .
17% of all Americans believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows ! LMFAO .
So still someone believe that God shitted us onto the ground?
Oh God makes me cry
I'm not trying to sound rude or one-sided.
But the truth is. The Truth is Very hard to swallow.
These Scientific Theories are Bogus lies & mankind's imagination.
Human beings DID NOT come from Ape Evolution, Alien intervention,nor "Neanderthals".
We may be Existing for reasons Science itself probably could never explain. For example A Human May Eat,sound,& behave like a wild animal, but they will never be animal. They will still be Human.
It's strange. Its almost biblical how We humans are the way we are. Yes… Every Decade.we use technology to stray away from Nature & God.Some of us may think we don't need the wonder of God anymore & praise Man/man's Theories instead. But in return we will just become bitter,Cynical,Greedy.. & lonely. I bet you 2,000 more years from now. Humans, no matter how technological we become. We will still be HUMAN BEINGS. & hopefully one day we can set aside all these Lies, Hypotheses & Theories & just sit down & accept the truth.
Thank you for making this beautiful nutshell! 💙💙💙
George Soros is really good at making educational videos.
Read Ťhe Pŕesent åt the wėbsitė of the globaltruthproject and discover all the answers of the big questions about life.
⬆️⬆️
If anyone is interested in this topic , there is a game on steam called Dawn of man it is pretty good.
0:59 Aight I'm boutta head out
Ark of the Covenant found in Israel beneath Calvary. Spread the word!
Why do humans feel like they know the answers to questions of this nature… When in reality, NOBODY FUCKING KNOWS. That's like asking, what happens after you die…. NOBODY KNOWS!!
Every since I was a little kid, I've been wondering how far back in time we could snatch a baby that could be raised in our modern world. I was just thinking about that when I watched the video and just a few seconds after I got the answer! You are an inspiration, keep it up!
A phone game brought me here
4:57 Is that Rambo?
neanderthals got fucked when homo sapiens came see what was up in europe when ice age hit africa. since neanderthals were like 2m+ tall (almost or around 7ft) and were strongers and good fighters, they didnt need to think and invent new weapons as much as the weak humans (us) did. so we clapped em with our 200iq weapons
I believe in History but not Evolution.
The cause of their extinction is…
Thanos' Snap.
The official prehistory doesn't even mention the many inexplicable findings and alternative theories, which is shameless. The presentation of theory as fact is religion. The most simple explanation is that disasters have erased most traces of early civilization and knowledge. Also, there seems a lot of evidence thathimans came from other planets. That is what many isolated tribes and cultures agree on, who have very advanced knowledge of astronomy.
It is unlimited stupidity to say that the origin of man monkey, what a foolish even Darwin did not say that
Actually, science existed before the scientific revolution and a lot happened during the golden age of the Islamic revolution. Most texts were then translated which made the scientific revolution easier. Check out, Al-Khwarizimi (Algebra) or Avicenna, lots of Italian works are based out of them but they never got the correct credits.
Our superpower is to co-operate flexible in massive groups. Let's use it to our advantage!
Love this channel but this has sooooo many lies in it. No proof. I believe in a world wide flood and the bible. Earth is not millions of years old and we have no scientific proof of evolution. NONE!
The amount of things wrong in this video
very good, thank you.
Our ancestors only “Just” caused a minor genocide….how can we call ourselves humans?
When you choose intelligent over strength
Just completed sapiens which i got to know after this video and it is my favorite book now!
Therapist: Flintstones Rambo doesn't exist, he can't hurt you
Flintstones Rambo: 4:59
we don't know what caused them to die out. we must have killed them or they built spaceships and left while we suckers were busy building pyramids
"opportunities to connect" – euphemism for colonialism happened
we all clapped the other species, we were way more advanced than the other species when we were made and the only species that was even CLOSE to us during our existence was homo erectus and the neanderthals
"Don't worry about those little things"
Me, standing in line for nearly 5 hours after 30 people skip me.
5:34 that is women of all ages point of view since 9999999999 AC to ever
Missing the part where we nuke our own existence
Did anybody else cry?
I don't know why but this channel gives me bright hopes for our future and makes me want to be a part of it.
Do u know how to pronounce the name of your channel?
😭😂🤣
Humans are very uncomfortable not knowing things, so we create fiction to fill the void.
My daughter is 1.5 years old and in a few years I’ll be showing her some of kursgesagt vids and Neil Degrasse Tyson’s cosmos series and in a matter of hours a young child will have more knowledge on the world and universe than I did until I hit my twenties I can’t wait to see what she grows up to do
we made no progress until the fire nation attacked
Homo Sapians are just an invasive spiecies
2:58 why 😂😂😂
How do you know?
Wrong
Please do one on Pyramids, Sphynx, and lost knowledge those have retained. It seems like this topic is on the rise recently.
This was Australia. Its aboriginals were still in the Stone Age the day European settlement begun in 1788. The had no townships, no agriculture, no history, no written language, just cave-art and primordial myth.
This is a religious story, no proof any of this happened.
I wonder if they had vegans back then?
But the Bible says the earth is 6000 years old.
All lies
You guys can think yourself as monkeys all you want. I come from god.
My teacher : god created earth and human
Me : believe in science
My mind : fucking kidding ?
How dumb are people
Now a day?
Homo: I'm out
Yep. Today patience is not only a virtue, it's a necessity.
wolves don't run in packs, that's a myth. whenever adult wolves are seen together its a mother and almost ready to leave cubs
I think we need to reduce the human populations and the trash.. well both basically are the same
Who's the 7.7k fags who disliked this? You petty af lmfao. 😂👀
Have you not read the bible?
Kid: Astrophysicists found out something about black holes.
Early human: K I L L E D A N Y B E A R S ?
i liked the message at the end
I agree with grian
It has been and will keep on being the miracle of human free will. Call it a divine spark or a mind glitch that triggered a consciousness singularity, the fact is humanity has heen able to transform reality itself, and as thus we carry the responsibility of being accountable for our entire actions in the course of our entire existence.
Hence why I believe mind viruses are the ultimate danger that plague humanity. After all, anything nature can throw at us can be hurdled if we're given enough time, but a mind virus has the capability of destroying human progress simply by <convincing us we're not accountable for our actions>, that life's inherent lack of meaning should be regarded as proof of life's worthlessness instead of the liberation of doing anything we will out of our existence, and that we do not trascend when we evidently do.
Enjoy existing because you were lucky enough to beat the other 2 million bastards that raced you for it. Bitch.
borger not hott
I feel bad for the first person to burn themselves
Basically we are evolved to become lazy.
3:44 NO! He should have said "Stay a while and listen."
Amazing video
Bible: am I a joke to you.
what the world would be in the next 20 generations?
Soooo our ancestors played Minecraft irl
I think there isnt a single bird in this video
Later homo
i refuse to believe humans were monkeys in the past its not proven
U r
I must’ve been the only person that busted out laughing at that speech bubble that said “let me tell you somethin”
Kurgsfhcdui: never has humans lived in a more sophisticated world.
Me watching my brother stoned out if his head move two couches together in order to lie down with our dog: yes
Virgin modern human vs. Chad caveman
If “`homo erectus“` were indeed Homo, is it why they were no longer born?
This is why you have to eat meat! The reason we have 4 k9 tooths..
Me 0.000001 seconds after seeing the title:
DINOSAURS