So far as we have been able thus far to determine, our species’ transcendence over our one-time close-quartered Neanderthalic cousins occurred with (more or less) finality roughly 40,000 years ago. Yours and my more immediate Cro-Magnon/Homo sapiens brethren began to write it all down, ostensibly to make it easier for those following on to know something more of a definitive nature with regard to history (in at least a very rudimentary, pre-hieroglyphic fashion), approximately 33,000 years later. This puts us on an accelerating ellipsis of written languages’ importance as the single most salient factor (within a multifaceted group of imperatives, both natural and otherwise) in the ascendency of our species on this planet. No small accomplishment, considering that horses still managed many daily requirements of local transportation when my father was a boy.
Where are we headed from here, and how long do you suppose it will take us? Perhaps like a giant roman candle with explosive power and awesome momentary incandescence, we had better watch closely as our rapidly rising star may be poised to plunge earthward just as quickly.
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