Death By Fucking Ch. 07

Donnie asked “What about speciation in humans?”

“From what I read, many people are talking about the end of natural evolution for humans. We cover the planet. We have transportation that is so good that a person can be in New York today and in Bangkok tomorrow. There is no place for speciation to occur because there are no isolated populations anymore. Evolution in the future will be caused by scientists doing genetic alterations.”

Donnie laughed. “You do know something about everything, don’t you?”

Dee Dee said, “You like scenarios, don’t you? Think about this scenario. One hundred and fifty thousand years ago a new species was born. The species was descended from a long line of animals called hominids, the most intelligent of animals ever to be on earth, probably. But the new species had something previous hominids did not: the inherent ability to use symbolic logic. Eventually language was developed to use that ability and suddenly the species was no longer just an animal. The species became man –homo sapiens. “

“Answer me this. For the next one hundred and forty thousand years man expanded across the face of the earth. Man improved his tool set, developed art, created quite a few other admirable things. But man remained a hunter-gatherer, just as previous hominids had been. But suddenly everything changed. Why?”

“In the last ten thousand years, man, starting with nothing, has taken over the earth. Man has discovered agriculture, discovered science, created government, and walked on the moon. The real advances, the major steps that have been made have really come within the last six hundred years. It could be said that most progress has been made in the last two hundred years. Two hundred years out of 150,000 years; that’s extraordinary. What caused things to change?”

I got the picture. I think I got where she was going with this. “You’re going to tell me that man himself has changed. You’re going to say that we are not thehomo sapiens of 150,000 years ago, right?”

Donnie picked up the narrative. “You are close, Andrew. It’s not all of mankind. Buthomo sapiens has been attempting to speciate, evolve into a new species. Time and again a different type of man has been born, one who could go beyond the simple talents ofhomo sapiens. It is those misfits who have been the motivating forces for change. Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Eleanor Roosevelt, William Shakespeare, Voltaire, Einstein, Edison: who were these men and women?”

I shook my head. “Wait a minute, you’re telling me that these people were all ‘the next generation’ of man? That’s a little far fetched.”

Dee Dee said, “No, that isn’t exactly what we are saying. These were indications of mankind’s attempts to get to the next level. They were the prototypes of what was to come. But they were too few to create a movement. Their greatness allowed them to impact the flow of history. But they were like an upsurge in the body of man that fell back again into the whole, re-assimilated into the species, not unlike your sub-species scenario who merged back into the main group.”

“So where do you come in?” I asked.

Donnie replied “We are the first of the effort to finalize the speciation effort. We and others like us are trying to breed our way to the next species. We’ve made great progress in not a long time. We are stillhomo sapiens, but we are an almost separate sub-species.”

“What is that supposed to mean? How can you know that?” This had gone from being a little unbelievable to a lot unbelievable.

“Andrew, do you remember when we first decided to ‘relieve your tension’? I told you not to worry about birth control, didn’t I?”

“Sure, Dee Dee; I was wondering about that. Are you on the pill or something?”

Dee Dee said “No, Andrew. It is very difficult for us to conceive with a normalhomo sapien. Our Mother was with my father for many years before she was able to conceive us.”

“To be a member of the same species two individuals must be able to mate successfully and have their offspring successfully mate as well. We are close to being unable to successfully mate with any normalhomo sapiens. I was sure there would be no chance for me to conceive with you in only one night.”

Donnie gave a little gasp. “But Dee Dee, what if he is one of us? Will conception remain difficult? Could we already be pregnant?”

Dee Dee stood up in a panic. “Andrew pay the bill! We’ve got to get to a drug store now!”