The Human Who Left Home

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The One Who Walked Far

Then some early humans began to move farther. Much farther. Among the most remarkable of them was Homo erectus.

Over a vast span of time, populations of Homo erectus spread far beyond the landscapes where their ancestors had lived. They moved across parts of Africa and into regions of Asia and Europe, encountering environments that were very different from one another.

The world was no longer one familiar home. It was becoming many different worlds.

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Many Different Worlds

Grasslands. Woodlands. Open plains. Cold regions. New animals. New plants. New dangers. New seasons.

The ability to survive could no longer depend entirely on knowing one particular place. Something more flexible was needed.

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Flexibility Was Everything

A useful food source in one environment might not exist in another. A shelter that worked in one climate might be useless somewhere else. A familiar danger might be replaced by a completely new one.

Survival increasingly depended on the ability to learn. To remember. To adjust. To observe. And perhaps, most importantly, to cope with the unfamiliar.

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Not Conscious Exploration

We should be careful with the word exploration. Homo erectus probably did not wander across continents with a map in hand and a conscious desire to discover the unknown.

Populations may have moved gradually over generations. They may have followed food, water, animals, changing climates, or simply expanded into available landscapes. But whatever the reason, the result was extraordinary. A human population could enter an unfamiliar environment and survive there.

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A Mind That Could Learn Any Landscape

That required more than physical strength. It required flexibility. A mind that could learn a new landscape. Remember new paths. Recognise new dangers. Discover new sources of food. Adjust old behaviours to new circumstances.

The old world could not always be carried with them. The mind had to learn the new one.

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Making the Unfamiliar Feel Like Home

Perhaps this was one of the beginnings of a distinctly human quality: the ability to make an unfamiliar place gradually feel like home.

A river that was unknown could become a remembered route. A cave could become shelter. A distant water source could become part of a mental map. A new season could become something to prepare for. The landscape slowly entered the mind.

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What Lies Beyond

And once a landscape could be remembered, it could perhaps also be imagined. What lies beyond the hill? Where does the river lead? Will there be food on the other side? Is the distant land safe?

We cannot know exactly what questions ancient humans asked themselves. But their movements tell us something. The human family was no longer tied to a single kind of environment.

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The Portable Mind

This may have had profound consequences for the mind. A creature adapted to one narrow environment can depend heavily on instinct. But an adaptable creature must learn. It must observe the world and change its behaviour.

And a creature that repeatedly encounters the unfamiliar may gradually become better at dealing with uncertainty. The ability to survive was becoming increasingly portable.

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Home Within

Perhaps the ancient roots of human curiosity are not found in a sudden desire to discover everything. Perhaps they began more simply. A need to move. A need to adapt. A need to find out what lies beyond the familiar.

The human story had begun with a body that learned to walk differently. Then hands began to transform objects. Now the human family was beginning to move across a much larger world.

With every new landscape, the mind had to stretch a little further. The familiar was no longer the limit of survival. And somewhere along the way, the unknown began to become a possibility.

The human mind had begun to carry home within itself.