Two thousand
New genetic studies seem to indicate that, about 70,000 years ago, the human species came close to extinction. At one point the total population was around two thousand, divided into small, isolated groups. 70 millennia is an eyeblink on the evolutionary timescale. It's only a few thousand generations ago. The humans of that time were very much like you and me, probably using speech, certainly making sophisticated tools. If you passed one of your great3000-grandparents on the street (suitably cleaned and clothed) you wouldn't look twice. They were us. And they came shockingly close to dying out entirely.
We're here through purest luck. If that long drought had lasted another thousand years, we would be gone. If predators had been slightly more efficient, we would be gone. If a disease had killed off a third of the tiny, weakened population, we would be gone. And yet we're here.
Kind of gives you the chills, doesn't it? I know it's silly to worry in hindsight, especially in nearly a hundred thousand years of hindsight. But it's hard not to tense up when you contemplate the existence of your species riding on an evolutionary roll of the dice.
We're here through purest luck. If that long drought had lasted another thousand years, we would be gone. If predators had been slightly more efficient, we would be gone. If a disease had killed off a third of the tiny, weakened population, we would be gone. And yet we're here.
Kind of gives you the chills, doesn't it? I know it's silly to worry in hindsight, especially in nearly a hundred thousand years of hindsight. But it's hard not to tense up when you contemplate the existence of your species riding on an evolutionary roll of the dice.