The classic sci-fi movie "Rise of the Apes" tells the story that an orangutan with the same level of intelligence as humans defeated the enslaved orangutan but contracted the "ape flu" and degenerated human beings, and since then ruled the earth. The film itself is intended to sound a warning bell to humans, not to be driven by crazy ambitions to disrupt the balance of nature, but it also leaves us with a question: Will the orangutans now evolve into human beings with high intelligence? This possibility now appears to be very small.
Environmental changes will not come back
Anthropologists generally agree that environmental changes have caused the ancient apes to evolve from crawling to walking upright. This is an important process for the apes to evolve into humans, and the orangutans must go through this process if they want to evolve into humans.
Twelve million years ago, crustal movements created a rift valley in eastern Africa. There is a food-rich forest to the west of the Great Rift Valley. The ancient apes living here do not need to walk on the ground. Their hands and feet are developed to be suitable for grasping. The big toe and the other four toes are separated by a larger width than humans. The ancient apes were swinging between the branches and eating fruits and finally became the present apes.
Rainfall in the east of the Great Rift Valley is decreasing, forests are gradually disappearing, food is in short supply, but beasts are abundant. The ancient ape’s heel hands began to diverge, and a unique arch appeared on the foot, allowing it to kick back on the ground efficiently and run upright steadily. Walking upright makes the field of vision wider and easier to find hidden beasts. The hands are liberated, and they become more flexible during long hours of work. With a more complex neural network, they can complete more delicate work.
The environments at the two ends of the Great Rift Valley are completely different, providing apes with completely different backgrounds. The harsh environment makes the apes in the east begin to walk upright, so do the apes today have such conditions? We provide enough food for the monkeys and orangutans in the zoo, and they no longer need to change themselves to adapt to the harsh environment. The habitat of wild apes is greatly affected by human activities, and they can only hide in forests suitable for them to climb.
Without a suitable environment, monkeys and orangutans have no possibility of evolving into adults.
Gene mutation cannot be replicated
Walking upright and the division of labor between hands and feet are important demarcation points for the differentiation of humans and apes, but the more important demarcation point is actually the little difference in the genes of humans and apes.
Geneticists put forward the "Neutral Mutation and Random Drift Theory", which tells us that genetic mutations occur randomly, and there is no good or bad. Mutations may be passed on from generation to generation in the population, or they may disappear. The same is true for mutations in ancient apes that have evolved into humans. Gene mutations may occur naturally or may be affected by external radiation. If genetic mutations are not conducive to the survival and reproduction of ancient apes, they will be eliminated by nature. If the mutated gene is beneficial for the ancient apes to adapt to the environment, the mutations will be passed down from generation to generation, and eventually humans and apes will be divided into two species.
Chinese scientists have discovered that there is a unique enzyme in the hippocampus of the human brain, which plays an important role in the learning and memory functions of animals. It is this enzyme that makes the intelligence of us and apes a watershed. The emergence of this enzyme is only because one of our genes was mutated 5 million years ago, allowing this enzyme to be further assembled and play a more complex role. Scientists introduced this mutation into the chimpanzee’s DNA. As a result, they This unique enzyme also appears in the body.
Coincidentally, American scientists have also discovered a genetic mutation in humans. They believe that this mutation gives humans the ability to speak. The mutation of this gene produces a protein that can contract the jaw muscles, and also affects the muscles related to the lips and oral sounds, so that humans can make a variety of sounds.
Genetic mutations have made humans’ intelligence quotient soar, far surpassing that of apes. The difference in IQ levels is an important difference between humans and apes. In the process of evolution, these mutations occurred randomly, and after hundreds of thousands or even millions of years of natural selection. Nowadays, apes basically don't have such a long time to undergo genetic mutations, and they are passed on, so they cannot evolve into high IQ animals.
Apes replace humans?
It is basically impossible for orangutans to naturally evolve into human beings, because there are thousands of forks on the road of evolution. They can no longer encounter the same environment and cannot have the same genetic mutations. So is it possible for the orangutans in the movie "Rise of the Apes" to evolve into adult apes and replace humans to dominate the earth?
To achieve this situation, two major conditions in the film must be met: scientists did experiments on orangutans and produced high-IQ orangutans; humans became extinct due to disease, just as the extinction of dinosaurs freed up primates tens of millions of years ago. Like the throne of the overlord, only the extinction of mankind can give way to orangutans.
The orangutan took a shortcut under the intervention of humans, and its IQ was greatly improved overnight. This may happen due to an experimental accident. After all, orangutans are human relatives. In order to test the results of experiments, scientists often perform some drug tests on orangutans. And genetic experiments.
But the extinction of mankind due to disease is almost impossible. Nowadays, human beings are spread all over the world, and the "ape flu" that infects all human beings in movies basically does not appear, because people's immune abilities are different, and the powerful virus in Asia may not be easy to work in Europe. Moreover, humans’ response to diseases is very rapid. For example, avian influenza and swine fever, which have spread widely before, we have contained the development of the epidemic in just a few months, and did not have a major impact. The progress of science and technology will only get faster and faster.
More importantly, we don't want apes to become smarter. Now we consider ourselves to be higher creatures. We keep other animals, including monkeys, orangutans, in the zoo, provide them with a comfortable environment and sufficient food, and deprive them of the right to evolve naturally.
Stills from the movie "The Rise of the Planet"
We also pay close attention to the apes and monkeys in the wild. Once they show signs of high IQ, we will immediately catch them as monsters for research, such as the chimpanzee Oliver. Because it has little hair, it can walk upright. Instead of getting close to chimpanzees, it gets close to humans. People kept it in a laboratory cage for 7 years. When it was released, it suffered from arthritis in its knees and could no longer walk upright.
Perhaps our original intention of studying orangutans is to understand the evolution of humans, but on the other hand, is this not a kind of control over orangutans? After years of research, Oliver was finally confirmed to have genetic mutations. These mutations have improved its IQ. However, under the intervention of humans, it failed to pass on the mutated gene. Maybe we killed it once. The opportunity for orangutans to evolve into highly intelligent creatures killed Oliver's possibility of becoming the ancestor of another "Homo sapiens".
Therefore, with human intervention, there is no chance for apes to evolve.
Humans have ruled the earth for millions of years. If this is a game, we have already thrown away the apes. We don't want and cannot be replaced or surpassed by them.
