It seems as if imagining a world without humans could only happen in horror movies, science fiction or apocalyptic futures… but… It is a possibility that many scientists consider and explore. Tim Coulson, a professor at Oxford University, has reminded us that no species lasts forever (not even ours) and that, if one day we were to disappear, would another species take our place? It is clear that evolution would continue its course, just as it has been doing for these billions of years, but it is something that worries the scientific community. Below we are going to tell you what the post-human world would be like according to this scientist.
Life after humans.. a challenge
As we already know, nothing is eternal and neither are we. At least, this is what this scientist has tried to make clear in his book “The Universal History of Us”, where Coulson explains that, if by any chance, humans were to disappear from the face of the Earth, other species would begin to occupy the spaces that we would leave empty, and that, thanks to evolution, other creatures would begin to evolve over millions of years to adapt to this new world. Many people think that primates would be our natural successors, but Coulson rules out this option since they have a social dependency that could limit their adaptation.
Who would be the new “owners” of the planet?
This is the idea that Coulson believes, that it would be the octopuses, yes, those creatures created by King Triton himself with eight tentacles and suction cups on them, because they would be the new builders of civilizations. What makes octopuses special? Not only are they extremely intelligent animals, but they are also very skilled. According to science, they are animals that can solve problems, communicate through colour changes and interact with objects with great precision (which other animals have not been able to). So, after millions of years of evolution, these animals could develop the ability to even live outside of water to be able to explore the terrestrial world, hunt and begin to expand.
Imagine a future in which the oceans become home to underwater cities built by octopuses… Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how they communicate with each other?
What challenge would these animals find?
Even though they are very intelligent animals, they have a “basic” problem, and that is that they are invertebrates, which would make their life outside the water quite difficult. They also have a fairly short life expectancy, which could make it much more difficult to transmit knowledge between generations. However, if we know anything about evolution, it is that nature always finds ways to surprise itself by breaking through the asphalt! So, what seems like a horror movie to us today, or a joke to some, might not be so in the very distant future.
What would Earth be without us?
Surely, there would be less pollution. But life on Earth, as we know it, has been shaped by unexpected events for billions of years, think of the poor dinosaurs who saw the meteorite fall before them, or genetic mutations that made us now have consciousness and fingers and not claws.
These changes would surely also seem like a utopia in the past, but they are the ones that have clearly defined “the survival theory” that is, who survives, and who disappears. It is clear that it is impossible to know what the future will bring to this planet, but just imagining it opens up the perspective of how incredible our planet can be.
So, (literally) we are not the navel of the world, if we were to disappear, the earth would not be empty and species would find a way to reorganize themselves, other new species would appear, and who knows if also an alien invasion at last.
This just makes us think about how we should take care of the only world we have, what world do we want to leave to the octopuses?