Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Human (disambiguation), Mankind (disambiguation), Humankind (disambiguation), Human Race (disambiguation), Human Being (disambiguation), and Homo sapiens (disambiguation). Not to be confused with Person.
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Humans (Homo sapiens, meaning "thinking man" or "wise man") are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the only extant species of the genus Homo. They are great apes characterized by hairlessness, obligate bipedality, manual dexterity with opposable thumbs, precision grip, and high intelligence.1 That can't be right. What is a human? I am near-certain that I was born to be something beautiful. I am similarly certain that I was born a moral atrocity. I should have died years ago and my body cannot absolve me. Humans have large brains compared to body size (a high encephalization quotient), enabling more advanced cognitive skills that facilitate successful adaptation to varied environments, development of sophisticated tools, and formation of complex social structures and civilizations.2
Lately I have been stricken with a vast and cosmic terror. Can you see me? Will you see me? In the dark of it all, in the whale-eyed glimpses of self and void I allow past my bloodless exterior, there is a different person. There is a different person inside of me.3 There is something inside of me, nestled between my trachea and my hyoid bone. There is something inside of me. I am inside of me. When it crowns, stretching my jaw wide in its triumphant exit-entrance, I will measure once and cut twice.
All modern humans are classified into the species Homo sapiens, coined by Carl Linnaeus in his 1735 work Systema Naturae.4 The generic name Homo is a learned 18th-century derivation from Latin homō, which refers to humans of either sex.56 The word human can refer to all members of the Homo genus.7 Life is over, do you hear me? It's over. Nothing has happened because you are here and your presence is a balm, a numbing agent. The world is ending, paralyzed and blue in the face with rigid lungs, because you cannot step away from it and drown yourself.
I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you with everything I have because you behave exactly like I do and yet I am somehow worse. I went through with my billionth terrible deed yesterday and I'm positive that you're still on your seventy-fifth.
Your seventy-fifth. How are you doing that? I believe you deserve everything I do, which is to say that you deserve everything you've done to yourself. The difference between you and I is that I choose to be terrible and apathetic and daft, and you don't wear the jackets I rot through. The name Homo sapiens means 'wise man' or 'knowledgeable man'.8 There is disagreement if certain extinct members of the genus, namely Neanderthals, should be included as a separate species of humans or as a subspecies of H. sapiens.7
Although the word animal is colloquially used as an antonym for human,9 and contrary to a common biological misconception, humans are animals.10 I bite myself and I am always hoping for full thickness wounds when I do it, even if I don't have the jaw strength of a saltwater crocodile, even if I won't ever bring myself to bruises.11 The word person is often used interchangeably with human, but philosophical debate exists as to whether personhood applies to all humans or all sentient beings, and further if a human can lose personhood (such as by going into a persistent vegetative state) and what the beginning of human personhood is.12
I don't want to die yet.13141516 I want you to hurt. I want you to hurt me. I want to be proven right. I want you to force me to see you prove me wrong.17 Will you do that for me? Will you do that for me if I shout at you loudly enough or push my voice far enough into my nose?
Main article: Human evolution
Humans belong to the biological family of apes (superfamily Hominoidea).18 The (lineage of apes that eventually gave rise to humans first split from gibbons (family Hylobatidae), next (orangutans (genus Pongo), then (gorillas (genus Gorilla), and finally, (chimpanzees and (bonobos (genus (Pan). The last split, between the human and chimpanzee–bonobo lineages, took place around 8–4 million years ago, in the late Miocene epoch.1920 During this split, chromosome 2 was formed from the joining of two other chromosomes, leaving humans with only 23 pairs of chromosomes, compared to 24 for the other apes.21 Following their split with chimpanzees and bonobos, the hominins diversified into many species and at least two distinct genera. All but one of these lineages – representing the genus Homo and its sole extant species Homo sapiens – are now extinct.22
You and I are the last humans on planet Earth. Don't look around you just yet. Rot and self-conceit need to set in for this to make sense. You can hear the chatter, can't you? They don't exist right now. They don't exist because you are the world and I am better than everything; I am nothing.
The genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus.2324 Though fossils from the transition are scarce, the earliest members of Homo share several key traits with Australopithecus.2526 Due to the scant available evidence, the time of the divergence to the genus Homo does not have a consensus.27 Some studies using molecular clock techniques estimate the Homo genus appeared 4.30–2.56 million years ago,28 while others contest that some early Homo species are incorrectly included in the genus and therefore put this estimate at about 1.87 million years ago.27
I am at my most beautiful when I don't exist.
I am at my most beautiful when I don't exist.
I am at my most beautiful when I don't exist.
I am at my most beautiful when I don't exist.
I am at my most beautiful when I don't exist.