I was astounded when the remains of a timber frame structure solidly dated to ~478kya was found in Zambia recently. The implications of pre-sapiens hominins having such advanced tech are pretty mind-boggling. Also, the majority of hominins being found in Eurasia, particularly including basal species like Floresiensis and Luzonensis, make a mockery of the OoA hypothesis, that is based only on a model of molecular change, and ignores the incongruity of the L, M, and N haplotypes suddenly arising from the small population of subsaharan hominins, right around the time Toba smothered S. Asia. The power of funding sources, particularly those with political agendae, to influence publishing is too little understood, but, as I point out in the OP, has strongly influenced narratives that underlie our understanding of who we are and how we got here.
The interpretation of megalithic construction is particularly silly, when the remarkable precision of fit and finish, the demonstrable toolmarks of power tools, and claims that very hard materials like schist, granite, and similar stone were manufactured to sub-millimeter tolerances with copper chisels, or even pounding stone hammers, are put forward. Even folks that have never cut a board or pounded a nail can grasp that such claims are without merit, and the persistence of these false narratives reveals the obdurate purpose of such deception fails when new technologies - especially aDNA - flatly disproves decades, even centuries of obfuscation of our true origins. We have only learned of Denisovans by that advance, and the destruction wrought by disingenuous machinations of every discovery in America for more than a century rendered useless with the aDNA from a tiny fragment of a pinky bone in a Siberian cave. How that must have enraged the deceivers!
Thanks!
Enraged, indeed - it's very much a story of how the stupid don't realise they lack intelligence. And it hurts be uncomfortable as your way of seeing is disrupted.
It strikes me that it's a form of arrogance, a belief in our superiority - and worse when white man assumes the black (let's assume I'm talking about all the nuances - Christian over Islam, America v rest of hte world, and so on) inferiority.
Mankind aren't very good thinkers, I'm afraid. Not on the whole. I wonder if this is an evolutionary trait - some beliefs need to be steadfast ie. snakes are dangerous. Yet flexible thinking surely should also be a survival skill?
You know, if I had my time again, I'd love to be a geneticist. So fascinating.
I have oft noted that the laws of physics determine economics, and today decentralization of the means of production across all fields of industry are the cutting edge of technological advance. The most advanced tech is the most productive, which is why tech advances, after all, as producers seek greater productivity from their application of their labors. This competitive advantage of decentralized means of production increases the ability of individuals and small communities to create wealth, and when the continued development and distribution of table top means of production are considered over time, the deprecation of centralized production and the hoards of capital necessary to produce massive factories will result. Why earn taxable wages to purchase widgets that sales of are taxed, when you can produce them on your kitchen table without creating a taxable event - and make a bespoke product specific to your personal need, rather than mass produced crap intended for general use?
My understanding of the fundamental nature of the laws of physics mandating this evolution in technology strongly suggests that the evolutionary pressures on humanity are reverting to those that produce high intelligence and individual merit. After the catastrophic Younger Dryas, that extinguished 77 genera of megafauna that were the preferred economic resources of people previously (one mammoth kill was ~4k meals of ~4kcal each, enabling one hunt to feed a village for a month or so), agriculture became necessary to sustain populations no longer able to supply their needs by hunting the extinct megafauna. This radical change in economic reality dramatically changed the evolutionary pressure on humanity, that previously had advanced intelligence and extraordinary athletic prowess of hunters (necessary to stab a 10 ton animal to death with a pointy stick), and replaced it with a need to serve crops with incessant drudgery turning piles of rotting poop and scratching lines in dirt, and conform to social pressure that arose as food and resources were centralized under rulers and their gangs of armed thugs. That deprecated intelligence because that produced dissent, and required only unending grubbing in dirt by slaves, rather than athletic prowess that was a threat to armed gangs of thugs.
However, CRISPR has recently been shown to comprise not only the CAS-9 mechanism, but thousands of mechanisms that are very likely to enable application of genetic engineering without the drawbacks of the CAS-9 mechanism. Because CRISPR is extremely simple and inexpensive (the means of genetic engineering cost about as much as a nice lunch out with family) and can be employed on a kitchen table, evolutionary pressures applied by the natural environment are likely to become irrelevant, as people gain understanding of our genes and how to change them to what we prefer.
For a couple hundred bucks you can become a genetic engineer in your spare time today. The-odin.com also provides targeted educational materials for similar negligible cost. The world is your oyster.