How we got here, and where we are going. Ever since the writings of Darwin and Huxley, humans’ place in nature relative to apes (nonhuman hominoids) and the geographic origins of the human lineage (hominins) have been heavily debated. Humans diverged from apes [specifically, the chimpanzee lineage (Pan)] at some point between ~9.3 million and ~6.5 million years ago (Ma), and habitual bipedalism evolved early in hominins (accompanied by enhanced manipulation and, later on, cognition). To understand the selective pressures surrounding hominin origins, it is necessary to reconstruct the morphology, behavior, and environment of the Pan-Homo last common ancestor (LCA). “Top-down” approaches have relied on living apes (especially chimpanzees) to reconstruct hominin origins. However, “bottom-up” perspectives from the fossil record suggest that modern hominoids represent a decimated and biased sample of a larger ancient radiation and present alternative possibilities for the morphology and geography of the Pan-Homo LCA. Reconciling these two views remains at the core of the human origins problem.

KANIS REX - NEXT GENERATION OF ADVANCED HUMAN

Man took millions of years to develop from apes, into Homo Sapiens Sapiens, former king of the primates, until John Storm was accidentally injected with a CRISPR virus developed by Brazilian scientists working for the secret society; NeuWelt Rittertum. The amateur anthropologist became super enhanced, but was later forced to undo damaging alterations to his DNA, in so doing creating a new species, physically and mentally superior to Homo Sapiens Sapiens; named by the scientific community; Homo Sapiens Superior, or Kanis Rex. These modifications were sufficient in scope to place him well and truly in a new class. Progressing from Homo Sapiens Sapiens, to become the king of humans genetically.

The modifications, only possible with the CyberCore Genetica™ super computer, combined with the BioCore™ brain implant - and Hal's AI, were not just to John's mental and muscular capabilities, but also to his physical frame; his skeleton and skull. Which are now stronger and lighter, with larger internal skull capacity within the existing exterior appearance. All of which in the natural world, would have taken several hundreds of thousands or so years to have achieved, assuming nature by itself would have identified a clear natural selection advantage.

After much debate and disagreement within the scientific community, as to manmade modification, John's genome is accepted as a new species, despite the conservationist refusing to allow tests to be run on his DNA for general consumption. Instead, he provides a digitally scrambled code, alongside the digitally scrambled codes of a normal human and chimpanzee - all being certified and the conversion witnessed by a group of 12 eminent scientists, at a specially convened 'Round Table' meeting with George Franks. From which they agree significant difference in chemical bone makeup, never before seen in primates. They also agree an amazing increase in brain capacity, far in excess of genius level IQ. (Without his telepathic enhancement, which he does not inform them of)

One of the tests John agrees to is playing five of the top human chess champions of the day, and a mainframe computer chess program at the same time - and winning every match - to the astonishment of the chess world. He then explains that he could not accept any title that may accrue, simply because his brain is enhanced. And that would be cheating. He does not let on that he can communicate with Hal telepathically.

By way of other tests of strength and skills, Storm, is allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, winning gold medals for swimming, running, weight lifting, table tennis, badminton and archery. He became known as the fastest man on earth, after trouncing the field in the 100 meters. Shattering Usain Bolt's record. For his archery skills, he is dubbed a living Robin Hood.

After his first win competing in table tennis singles, viewing numbers increased to watch him in the archery competition, scoring another notch on the belt, with his second gold. When John was competing in badminton, again the viewing numbers increased, reaching fever pitch when he shattered the world record for weight lifting. Then came his swimming freestyle gold, by which time the whole world tuned in to watch the men's 100 meter sprint. And again, John walked off with gold - making him headline news.

Having proved his point as to being a superior strain of the 'Homo Sapiens' species, John declines to accept the medals, thanking the Olympic Committee for their generous indulgence, then insisting that his medals are handed to the runners up, with each medal they have won, being bounced down the chain - his gold to the silver winner, and silver to the bronze medallist, with the first runner up receiving bronze. The competing athletes, Committee and watching public applaud his sense of fair play. For which he is dubbed "Maximus the Merciful." John publicly apologizes to Usain Bolt for taxing his sporting mantle. He is quoted in the media as saying: "That guy can run."

CORRECTIONS TO HUMAN LEGACY GENOME

Natural selection acts by winnowing the individuals of each generation, sometimes clumsily, as old parts and genes are co-opted for new roles. As a result, all species inhabit bodies imperfect for the lives they live, with unused reserve code. Our own bodies are worse off than most simply because of the many differences between the wilderness in which we evolved and the modern world in which we live. We feel the consequences every day taking them for granted, and learn to live with them, without consciously wondering why we act so. It's called being human.

A more advanced genome would not need code that will never be used again, and could lead to early decrepitude and disease. Changes to DNA that are undetectable, will allow more advanced humans to thrive in society, but give evolutionary advantages in the way of un-natural selection, though may be seen as natural, in that progression of modern humans would inevitably lead to genetic modification. To purists, this might seem like scientific blasphemy. An interference in natural selection, as happened in The Fly movie from 1986. But then natural selection depends on generations of procreative acts that take hundreds of thousands of years to achieve - and we live in a world that is teetering on extinction at every corner. Sometimes from policy error, such as caused global warming, and sometimes from political avarice, such as wars to subsume neighboring territory - to take control of their assets. For example, the dream of every megalomaniac, to dominate the world.

EVERLASTING LIFE

The other dream of the rich and powerful, is to live longer. It comes as a shock to the very wealthy, that with all their $billions, they cannot prevent ageing and disease. They are used to getting their own way at the snap of their fingers, but then hit a brick wall, in the realization that they are only human. They only have one life in which to make a difference, and to enjoy the spoils of success.

Being able to replicate a human subject, complete with synapse firing sequence and memories, means that a life can be extended indefinitely as a succession of replications. Or, ultimately, be modifying DNA to remove the genes that cause deterioration of the cell division process that allows ageing.

Perhaps a billion years ago, a single-celled organism arose that would ultimately give rise to all of the plants and animals on Earth, including humans. This ancestor was the result of a merging: one cell swallowed (imperfectly) another cell. The predator provided the outsides, the nucleus and most of the rest of the chimera. The prey became the mitochondrion, the cellular organ that produces energy. Most of the time, this ancient symbiosis proceeds amicably. But every so often, our mitochondria and their surrounding cells fight. The result is diseases, such as mitochondrial myopathies (a range of muscle diseases) or Leigh’s disease (which affects the central nervous system). This is an imperfection in our coding that can be eradicated.

Sahelanthropus

Ardipithecus

Australopithecus
A. anamensis
A. afarensis
A. bahrelghazali
A. africanus
A. garhi
A. sediba

Kenyanthropus

Paranthropus
P. robustus

Homo habilis
H. floresiensis
H. erectus
H. e. georgicus
H. cepranensis
H. antecessor
H. heidelbergensis
H. naledi
H. helmei
H. neanderthalensis

Homo sapiens
H. s. idaltu
H. s. sapiens - Brain capacity

Homo Sapiens Superior (Kanis Rex)

EVOLUTION

Humans are apes (superfamily Hominoidea). The lineage of apes that eventually gave rise to humans first split from gibbons (family Hylobatidae) and orangutans (genus Pongo), then gorillas (genus Gorilla), and finally, chimpanzees and bonobos (genus Pan). The last split, between the human and chimpanzee - bonobo lineages, took place around 8 - 4 million years ago, in the late Miocene epoch. During this split, chromosome 2 was formed from the joining of two other chromosomes, leaving humans with only 23 pairs of chromosomes, compared to 24 for the other apes. Following their split with chimpanzees and bonobos, the hominins diversified into many species and at least two distinct genera. All but one of these lineages - representing the genus Homo and its sole extant species Homo sapiens - are now extinct.

The genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus. Though fossils from the transition are scarce, the earliest members of Homo share several key traits with Australopithecus. The earliest record of Homo is the 2.8 million-year-old specimen LD 350-1 from Ethiopia, and the earliest named species are Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis which evolved by 2.3 million years ago. H. erectus (the African variant is sometimes called H. ergaster) evolved 2 million years ago and was the first archaic human species to leave Africa and disperse across Eurasia. H. erectus also was the first to evolve a characteristically human body plan. Homo sapiens emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago from a species commonly designated as either H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis, the descendants of H. erectus that remained in Africa. H. sapiens migrated out of the continent, gradually replacing or interbreeding with local populations of archaic humans. Humans began exhibiting behavioral modernity about 160,000-70,000 years ago, and possibly earlier.

The "out of Africa" migration took place in at least two waves, the first around 130,000 to 100,000 years ago, the second (Southern Dispersal) around 70,000 to 50,000 years ago. H. sapiens proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Eurasia 125,000 years ago, Australia around 65,000 years ago, the Americas around 15,000 years ago, and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years 300 and 1280 CE.

Human evolution was not a simple linear or branched progression but involved interbreeding between related species. Genomic research has shown that hybridization between substantially diverged lineages was common in human evolution. DNA evidence suggests that several genes of Neanderthal origin are present among all non sub-Saharan African populations, and Neanderthals and other hominins, such as Denisovans, may have contributed up to 6% of their genome to present-day non sub-Saharan African humans.

Human evolution is characterized by a number of morphological, developmental, physiological, and behavioral changes that have taken place since the split between the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The most significant of these adaptations are obligate bipedalism, increased brain size and decreased sexual dimorphism (neoteny). The relationship between all these changes is the subject of ongoing debate.

OTHER THROWBACKS

Brain size increase squeezes our teeth

A genetic mutation in our recent ancestors caused their descendants to have roomy skulls that accommodated larger brains. This may seem like pure success - brilliance, or its antecedent anyway. But the gene that made way for a larger brain did so by diverting bone away from our jaws, which caused them to become thinner and smaller. Cooking food reduced chewing and gave us more calorific value from less food. With smaller jaws, we could not eat tough food as easily as our thicker-jawed ancestors, but we could think our way out of that problem with the use of fire and stone tools. Yet because our teeth are roughly the same size as they have long been, our shrinking jaws don’t leave enough room for them in our mouths. And that is why our wisdom teeth need to be removed because our brains are too big for the existing design. John corrected this problem in upgrading his DNA, for future generations.

The tendency to obesity

Many of the ways in which our bodies fail have to do with very recent changes, changes in how we use our bodies and structure our societies. Hunger evolved as a trigger to drive us to search out food. Our taste buds evolved to encourage us to choose foods that benefited our bodies (such as sugar, salt and fat) and avoid those that might be poisonous. In much of the modern world, we have more food than we require, but our hunger and cravings continue. They are a bodily GPS unit that insists on taking us where we no longer need to go. Our taste buds ask for more sugar, salt and fat, and we obey.

Choking

In most animals, the trachea (the passage for air) and the esophagus (the passage for food) are oriented such that the esophagus is below the trachea. In a cat's throat, for example, the two tubes run roughly horizontal and parallel to each other before heading on to the stomach and lung, respectively. In this configuration, gravity tends to push food down toward the lower esophagus. Not so in humans. Modifications of the trachea to allow speech pushed the trachea and esophagus further down the throat to make way. Simultaneously, our upright posture put the trachea and esophagus in a near-vertical orientation. Together these changes leave falling food or water about a 50-50 chance of falling in the “wrong tube.” As a consequence, in those moments in which the epiglottis does not have time to cover the trachea, we choke. We might be said to choke on our success. Monkeys suffer the same fate only rarely, but then again they can’t sing or dance.

Our 'S' shaped spine

The backs of vertebrates evolved as a kind of horizontal pole under which guts were slung. It was arched in the way a bridge might be arched, to support weight. Then, for reasons anthropologists debate long into the night, our hominid ancestors stood upright, which was the bodily equivalent of tipping a bridge on end. Standing on hind legs offered advantages - seeing long distances, for one, or freeing the hands to do other things - but it also turned our backs from an arched bridge to an S shape. The letter S, for all its beauty, is not meant to support weight and so our backs fail, consistently and painfully.

Hernias from unsupported intestines

Once we stood upright, our intestines hung down instead of being cradled by our stomach muscles. In this new position, our innards were not as well supported as they had been in our quadrupedal ancestors. The guts sat atop a hodgepodge of internal parts, including, in men, the cavities in the body wall through which the scrotum and its nerves descend during the first year of life. Every so often, our intestines find their way through these holes - in the way that noodles sneak out of a sieve - forming an inguinal hernia.

These are all throwback features that reveal flaws in our DNA, from our evolutionary past.

The Cup of Christ is the Holy Grail, that has never been found, in all searches through the ages: The promise of life everlasting.