In the 300,000 years that Homo sapiens has existed as a distinctive species, we have done very well. During this time we have outlived at least five other hominids, including Homo neanderthalensis, which became extinct a mere 40,000 years ago—depending on ancestry, we actually carry traces of Neanderthal genes as a result of interbreeding. We have also managed to populate the entire planet, an accomplishment that has puzzled those who have tried to explain our unprecedented success. Luck was obviously a factor. But an another is now emerging from the genomic analysis of a rare disorder known as Williams Syndrome. (see “The Last Human” by Kate Ravilious, NewScientist, 29 Nov. 2021.)
Williams Syndrome, the result of a mutation in the BAZ1B gene, is a condition which amplifies its socializing effect on people, causing them to be hyper-gregarious: effusively friendly to strangers, excessively trusting, and overly optimistic and affable. The syndrome also causes a physiological softening of facial features, a visual cue that we psychologically associate with friendliness.
Significantly, the BAZ1B gene is also present and active in certain wild animals such as dogs, sheep and cows, a trait that has made them especially amenable to domestication. It is present, too, in bonobos, which live more amiably among themselves and with their neighbouring species than do chimpanzees, which do not have the gene and are relatively aggressive, xenophobic and uncooperative with adjoining populations.
A mutation which created the BAZ1B gene about 300,000 years ago provides a plausible explanation for our success as a species. We know from an analysis of anthropological evidence that Homo sapiens had the psychological disposition to live in larger groups than their other hominid relatives, that they did more social networking, and that they shared more with neighbouring groups. These extensive social interactions had many benefits. It meant that ideas were not only distributed more readily, but were more likely to be preserved. With a wider base of awareness and use, the sharing promoted innovation in both knowledge and technology. Sharing also reduced conflict, encouraged cooperation and facilitated the development of language, which accelerated the entire process and gave Homo sapiens more individual and collective resilience. Consequently, the intense plunge in climatic temperature that brought the last Ice Age about 40,000 years ago, caused the demise of the more cold-tolerant Neanderthals, but not their more physically fragile relatives.
At the psychological level, the “emotional neediness” engendered by the BAZ1B gene bound people together into interdependent groups. They cooperated, shared, trusted and bonded in ways that were foreign to those without the gene. This created larger, stronger and more unified societies with a collective consciousness that was able to accomplish feats unavailable to more fractured ones.
Of course, “the social gene” didn’t work perfectly in all circumstances. Tribal divisions still existed, as did cultural distinctions, racial differences, and eventually conflicting national identities and objectives. Innumerable wars, both large and small, have been fought over our differences. But the tendency of the BAZ1B gene over the millennia has been generally beneficial, otherwise our factious human history would be even more chaotic than it has been, and we wouldn’t have our current civilization.
The extent of our human sharing keeps our modern lives functioning with a remarkable degree of order, stability and security. The global network of trade and communication is a marvel of demonstrable interdependence. We ship food, supplies, products and services everywhere. We travel internationally, expecting to be safe wherever we go. Medical and technological information is shared by universities, scientific organizations and media. Even such prosaic and ordinary facilities as roads, schools, hospitals, sewage systems, electrical services, ferries and airports are the result of the collective decision to share and cooperate. We agree on which side of the road we will drive, on speed limits, stop signs, safety standards, hygienic practices, and innumerable social behaviours. Such agreements have accelerated and universalized during the last century to produce a globalized human society. The United Nations exists because we now think of humanity as a collective whole in which everyone everywhere is dependent on each other.
Unfortunately and ironically, the success of this beneficial sociability trait could now lead to a tragic failure. The ecological structures that have been supporting our accomplishments are currently collapsing because of our excessive use and abuse of them. Our attention has been focused on the wealth of consuming rather than the wisdom of conserving. The alarm bells in all but one of our nine vital and essential ecosystems are screaming. If any of them should fail, the cumulative effect will be potentially lethal to the construct that we have collectively built.
The time has come to register this threat and redirect the energy of our BAZ1B gene toward solving this problem rather than making it worse. The challenge we now face is existential, literally a series of life-or-death questions that each of us must answer with focus, ambition and bravery.
The alternative will be a human failure so colossal as to undermine whatever respectability, pride and dignity we have as a species.
We start here and now, wherever we may be. The cumulative effect of little acts of environmental kindness can be immense. This sociability gene of ours has a new role to play in our history as Homo sapiens. But we don’t have 300,000 years to exercise it. Not 300 years. Not even 30 years. We start today, at this moment. Or, in all likelihood, the tomorrows we meet will be too unpleasant to welcome.
Ray Grigg for Sierra Quadra
Top photo credit: Cave painting from the cave of Altamira in The Anthropos Pavilion of The Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic – Photo by DaBler (Own work) via Wikimedia (Public Domain)
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