Blog 7: The Conceit of Hindsight

The misconceptions that Dawkins warns the reader about were the idea that man is continually attempting to elucidate patterns throughout history that had a repetive nature to them. Humans have a tendency to view everything that came before in terms of how it has affected us and our own personal evolution throughout time until the present day. Trying to find a pattern should be something that Dawkins urges us to avoid. Evolution in the grand scheme of things is a pattern, even though at times the visible remnants may be present as seen in different taxa to times in which certain traits disappear. Patterns should not be expected to appear over and over. By looking at evolution from an egocentric view will hinder us from full comprehending evolution and its mechanisusms. Humans are constantly excepting an end, a finished product—yet evolution is the farthest from that. It is a never-ending circle that has no end and will continue if given the proper conditions. Evolution much be approached from the perspective that it is a constant and continually process.

To determine the time and origin of human beings, scientists trace back ancient human migrations by looking at and tracing genes. This method however does come with a drawback since tracing different genes can lead to different results due to their varying coalescent points. "Y-chromosome Adam" and "Mitochodrial Eve" are the original ancestors of humankind.

Several theories have been proposed as to when humans migrated out of Africa. Dawkins tends to favor the "Out of Africa Again and Again" hypothesis. Alan Templeton conducted extensive genetic research tracing many genes in order to find human origins. He concluded that there were three major migrations out of Africa through his extensive gene tracing.

The whole story will probably never be known. Other popular theories persist and present genetic evidence demonstrating that there may have been many small migrations to and from Africa, Asia as well as Europe.