How different the world would look now if Neanderthals had won
For 99% of the last million years of our existence, people rarely came across other humans
ByPenny Spikins, University of York
07:00, 20 NOV 2022
In evolutionary terms, the human population has rocketed in seconds. The news that it has now reached 8 billion seems inexplicable when you think about our history.
For 99% of the last million years of our existence, people rarely came across other humans. There were only around 10,000 Neanderthals living at any one time. Today, there are around 800,000 people in the same space that was occupied by one Neanderthal. What’s more, since humans live in social groups, the next nearest Neanderthal group was probably well over 100km away. Finding a mate outside your own family was a challenge.
Neanderthals were more inclined to stay in their family groups and were warier of new people. If they had outcompeted our own species (Homo sapiens), the density of population would likely be far lower. It’s hard to imagine them building cities, for example, given that they were genetically disposed to being less friendly to those beyond their immediate family.
The reasons for our dramatic population growth may lie in the early days of Homo sapiens more than 100,000 years ago. Genetic and anatomical differences between us and extinct species such as Neanderthals made us more similar to domesticated animal species. Large herds of cows, for example, can better tolerate the stress of living in a small space together than their wild ancestors who lived in small groups, spaced apart. These genetic differences changed our attitudes to people outside our own group. We became more tolerant.
More:
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/how-different-world-would-look-25559371
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"Lucy! You got some 'splaining to do!" (Leakey's Lucy, 
)
This shows that perhaps opposites do attract! There is another problem in that Neanderthals congregated in Southern Italy. Then one day a supervolcano did them in. (At least in that area.)
I wonder if Sapiens met Floresiensis. Do we truly have all the facts in on that one? To do so we need to establish the realm of Gigantopithecus. No small task since folks around that region use its bones and when dissolved... So my question for anthropology would be:
Did humans fail to compete with the much larger Gigantopithecus and the only way to survive was get little quick, a.k.a. Floresiensis?
... fully domesticated yet. Lol!
I was expelled from PRE-SCHOOL for running home (about three miles away), after Mom left me alone with the other kids who seemed like idiots to me. Then the pre-school teacher told my mother over the phone that I'd NEVER do well in school, yet I was always one of the best students in later years... after finally accepting elementary school as a boring part of my life, and my urge to escape subsided. Then I was later gung-ho about school, when it FINALLY got interesting with science and more advanced math classes.
I think people are still slowly evolving, mostly from the selective pressures of society as a whole.
It honestly wouldn't surprise me if autism is indeed more prevalent now, given the pressures of division-of-labor where the hyper-focused on a particular activity tend to excel.