# Humanity Is a Stage Not the Endpoint of Evolution by Martin Rees > “Even educated people who accept evolution tend to think that we humans are the endpoint, the culmination. But I think as astronomers, we can’t take that view because we know that the future is at least as long. The Earth will exist for another six billion years before the Sun dies, and the universe may go on expanding forever. So we should think of ourselves as a stage.” > **— Martin Rees**, *The Future of Us, with Sir Martin Rees, StarTalk, 2018* ## Sources and Context - **Direct publication and full context:** [The Future of Us, with Sir Martin Rees](https://startalkmedia.com/show/the-future-of-us-with-sir-martin-rees/) — The linked publication contains the quoted passage and its surrounding argument. - **Shorter source formulation:** [Martin Rees: interview](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/apr/06/astronomer-royal-martin-rees-interview) — Rees separately describes human beings as “not the culmination, but only a stage in the marvellous unfolding of evolution.” The master dossier routes that concise formulation to this fuller deep-time argument. - **Master research record:** [[research/Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future|Martin Rees on Machine Succession, Post-Human Intelligence, and the Cosmic Future]] — preserves this object inside the open Martin Rees source dossier. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Martin Rees|Martin Rees]] - [[wiki/Cosmic Future|Cosmic Future]] - [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Even educated people who accept evolution tend to think that we humans are the endpoint, the culmination. But I think as astronomers, we can’t take that view because we know that the future is at least as long. The Earth will exist for another six billion years before the Sun dies, and the universe may go on expanding forever. So we should think of ourselves as a stage.” — Martin Rees, The Future of Us, with Sir Martin Rees, StarTalk, 2018 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-martin-rees-humanity-stage-not-endpoint-evolution ```