The Future is Wild Wiki
The Future is Wild Wiki
The Future Is Wild Wiki
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in: Organisms of the Human era, Mammals, Primates

Human

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Human
Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene–Human era
Humans
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: Homo sapiens
Gallery
“
What does the future hold for the human race, with its sprawling cities and vast, polluting industries?
”

Humans (Homo sapiens) are a species of primate which were cosmopolitan during the Human era, when they dominated the planet for several thousand years. Human activities such as energy consumption, urbanisation, and industrial pollution had a devastating and far-reaching effect on the Earth's ecosystems and habitats, prompting the sixth mass extinction.[1]

The anthropogenic mass extinction was exacerbated by the onset of the next ice age, which wiped out thousands of species. Humans themselves disappeared during this phase of the extinction.[1]

In the animated series[]

The main characters of the The Future Is Wild children's animated series are all humans, from both the modern period and 10,000 years in the future, when the next ice age is just beginning, and humanity is threatened with extinction. Humans from this future period are technologically advanced, with time machines, complex robots, tractor beams, and force-field generators.

Behind the scenes[]

Humans were "written out" by the producers of The Future Is Wild at least partially due to sensitivity regarding human evolution in some quarters.[2] Other material suggests that they were removed to enable to series to chart future evolution without having to take human influence into account, beyond the initial mass extinction,[1] with Dougal Dixon commenting that "if humans survived and continued their activities as they are now, the impact on other living things would be so great that it would become impossible to scientifically predict evolution".[3]

“
... what if our domineering presence was removed, and the rest of the natural world was left to its own devices? What evolutionary success stories are waiting to be told? The Future Is Wild charts the evolution of a world without people, a world in which the forces of genetic variation and natural selection, not industry, decide the fate of the planet and the creatures in it.
”

The reason for humanity's extinction is never disclosed in the series. The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future (2002) states that the next ice age "led to the extinction of humans,"[1] while principal scientific advisor Robert McNeill Alexander speculated that humans could go extinct in the future due to "medical science's failure".[2]

In the U.S. Animal Planet version of The Future Is Wild, humans, instead of going extinct, voluntarily abandoned Earth, and periodically send back probes to examine its progress. According to series writer Victoria Coules, this change was stipulated by Animal Planet, who wanted humans to "[leave] in spaceships to go to a nicer planet".[4] A Natural History of the Future also suggests that humans could survive extinction by colonising other planets, or adapting to breathe polluted air.[1]

List of appearances[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Dixon, Dougal & Adams, John (2002) The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future, Firefly Books, ISBN 978-1552977231
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Arfah, Sharifah "Animals of the Future," New Straits Times (3 July 2003)
  3. ↑ asahi.com：ドゥーガル・ディクソン氏インタビュー - サイエンス
  4. ↑ Crowdsourced TetZooCon 2015 Report
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