Orrorin’s Diary

Orrorin means “Original Man” in Tugen (branch of the Kalenjin community in Kenya).

Orrorin Tugenensis is considered to be the oldest (or second oldest) known hominin ancestor related to modern humans and is the only species classified in genus Orrorin. The find of the fossils in Kenya in 2000 included a femur suggesting the Orrorin moved bipedally and walked upright.

Today, Orrorin is unleashing one of the greatest controversies the study of human origins has ever seen. If Orrorin was, indeed, walking on two legs six million years ago, scientists will have to rethink their ideas about how we split from the apes. The standard theories on how, when, and why we learned to walk on two legs would have to be reexamined.

So why have I decided to call the blog Orrorin’s Diary?

Being bipedal has helped Orrorin increase his field of view, thus becoming alert to approaching danger. Such advantage would have helped gather information which would be shared with the community giving them time to organize a response and protect the tribe.

This situation hasn’t evolved much till the lens has been created. It was impossible to look further than what the eye can see. However, introducing devices like the radio, phone and television succeeded into narrowing with time the world without the need for travel. Today with the Internet, behaviors and whole communities have been gathered in front of us.

The same way the femur brought new perception, perspectives and behaviors to the Orrorin, we may expect technology to act today. Many novelists have envisioned a 21th century where technology and humanity become one. Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov and other well known science-fiction writers might actually be seen as visionaries.

Bionics, Nanotechnology and Cybernetics, will pave the way towards a heightened senses society transforming our perceptions, feelings and behaviors. By using blogs and social networks, people have already started to reposition themselves. It’s just a matter of time before humankind will relearn to experience others. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are used to create a direct interaction with electronic devices while the Internet is used as goggles to relate and find our future positioning. This will bring us to rethink the basis of Husserlian Intersubjectivity, social phenomenology and qualia.

All those new technologies have brought us 6 million years back where suddenly, we can see what’s happening somewhere else, far far away.

Today, we are all Orrorin Virtualis and our femur is a top notch smart phone!