The film series Planet of the Apes predicts a day when one chimpanzee (“Caesar”) finally evolves to have human-like intelligence. The reason given in the original film series is the domestication of the chimp as a pet when dogs and cats go extinct. The modern film series seem to part from this, removing humans from the equation a bit more so that “natural selection” can take more credit for this transition.
The name “Caesar” is apt, as the eponymous Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubicon in 49 BC to overtake the senate and become the first Roman dictator1.
Just as the Rubicon was crossed by Caesar to transition Rome from Republic to Empire, an evolutionary Rubicon was supposedly crossed by the “last common ancestor” who transitioned us from primate to humans.
This, of course, assumes two things. 1) That a Rubicon even existed, and 2) that it remains open, even if to a limited extent. Some argue that humans have erected a garrison to prevent any further crossings, placing would-be “attempted humans” into a kind of category of captives who would like to share in the fruits of human civilization, but which we jealously guard from their barbaric hands. It conjures up the horrors of slavery and eugenics.
But the comparison fails on many fronts. First, as I’ve mentioned in countless posts previously, even if there’s a supposed Rubicon from animal communication to human language (which I also doubt, though the case is harder to make than the following), there’s clearly no Rubicon from animal, intraspecific (kind-on-kind, not predatory) combat to human violence. Animals seem to be permanently trapped within their closed combat systems that hinge entirely on natural weapons of combat, which both antagonists can predict with perfect certainty through mere self-assessment (in hermit crabs) and, in higher animals, mutual-assessment (mammals). Only humans use reciprocal, object-based aggression (ROBA) in which the weapon of war is a wildcard. Animals do not have this issue. If there is a Rubicon from there to here, you would see it crossed with chimpanzees in zoos, but all we continue to see is a replay of ancient combat, with occasional object usage for intimidation, none of which ever alters the fundamental combat structure.
Secondly, the Rubicon might not exist at all, at least not in the way previously assumed. Equally plausible could be a kind of Lamarckian Waterfall, where humanity (or merely human intelligence, whatever form it took) is forever peddling upstream and engaged in self-domestication, building new technologies to assist in our advancement, while failed “species” tumble backward off the waterfall to become various animals, the last of which was this mythical “last common ancestor,” which might have fallen partially before splitting into bonobos and chimpanzees, chimps still “pointing” to ROBA through the use of object-based intimidation and bonobos still reproducing like humans. (I don’t necessarily believe this, but it fits the data better than the Rubicon model.)
Most believe that the Rubicon model is “science,” but this is often used as a club to bash one’s political opponents. The typical political statement is something like, “Humans are just animals, but at least some of us have reason.” There is nothing scientific about this perspective, as I made clear on my recent appearance on the SHAKE IT OFF WITH MERT & LUCAS, LIVE! show (see below; my segment begins at 9:45) 2
It’s more accurate to call such a belief in the evolutionary Rubicon, which essentially comprises Modern Synthesis, a “religion.” And like every religion, it has a Creation, Fall, Wilderness, Messiah, and End Times.
- Creation: Life begins randomly, only the fittest survived, and nature existed in a kind of Edenic state.
- Fall: Primates evolved into Homo sapiens (or some hominid) which acquired the capacity to destroy itself and the entire world with Iron (Hesiod, Enoch), Gunpowder, Atomic energy, etc.
- Wilderness: All of human culture, according to Modern Synthesis, is a struggle for the supremacy of evolved rationality over the ape and lizard part of the brain. The average person can’t do this, nor can the traditionally religious person. Only our scientific elite are capable of such reasoning. Each age’s “priesthood” is comprised of specialists in whatever the major weapon is. Today, particle physicists claim this priesthood, because they built the bomb and they alone can destroy, and prevent the destruction of, the world. They urge their subjects to “humbly” admit they are all merely animals so that we can get along and not blow up the world, destroy animal species, cause global warming, etc. Some miscreants (criminals) continue to let the animal part of the brain take over. The priesthood deems them “animals.” The superstitious (religious fundamentalists, Muslims, etc.) believe they are above animals, and they are deemed “irrational” (a modern term equivalent to “heretic” or “heterodox”).
- Messiah: One animal – a primate – will cross the Rubicon and show us that we really are only animals. This animal – represented as Caesar in Planet of the Apes – will use language. Many have attempted to manufacture such a Messiah out of primates like Koko, Washoe, Nim Chimpsky, and other supposed “talking apes” that, however, never showed any signs of crossing the Rubicon. Other scientists tried (and failed) to birth such a Messiah by crossing humans with primates. The priesthood declares that the day may yet come when a primate crosses this Rubicon; perhaps we need to just get out of its way.
- Utopia: When humans realize we are merely animals, we will stop exploiting each other, stop exploiting the world, and become true participants in nature.
I explore the evolution of violence in my book If These Fists Could Talk: A Stuntman’s Unflinching Take on Violence which is available on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/9Vhz1wS
- Images rendered in Google Gemini AI.
- https://shakeitofflive.com/ AM970