Human

**Humans** (Latin: *Homo sapiens*) are a sophont species native to the planet Earth in the Solar System. They have a tetrapodal-bipedal mammalian anatomy, are carbon-based organisms using deoxyribonucleic and ribonucleic acids for genetic encoding, and possess the only known sophonce to have ever emerged on their homeworld. Due to their high intelligence, rationalization skills, and creative thinking, humanity embraces a multitude of cultures, religions, philosophies, and languages that have been exacerbated by their current spread across the stars. Humans are the sole surviving member of the *Homo* genus following millions of years of gradual evolution and competition; however, within only the period of approximately eight thousand years, humans have exponentially advanced in technology—to the point of establishing a thriving interstellar civilization by the 22nd century.

According to conventional evolutionary theory and anthropological study, *Homo sapiens* arose from the continent of Africa approximately 300,000 years ago and began a gradual migration across the surface of Earth. A sentient species alongside its brethren, *Homo sapiens* also displayed a significant degree of sapience that allowed its members to adapt to novel problems and investigate unknown phenomena. Although other species such as *Homo neanderthalensis* also displayed sapience, their crossbreeding with *Homo sapiens* and eventual causally-unknown extinction left *Homo sapiens* proper as the only surviving human species.

Sophonce in the human race is what eventually catapulted it to its modern standing, as *Homo sapiens* was fully able to analyze its own cognitive process and develop intricate mythologies to explain events, alongside formulating strategies to solve complex issues—behavioral precursors to scientific advancement. Such a trait eventually led to its exponential advance in technologies, evolving from a generally nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to sedentary, agriculture-based civilizations that blossomed into nation-states across Earth's settled land.

Humanity stayed sociopolitically fractured despite its technological innovations as a result of its diversity of ideologies and concepts for millennia, only unifying into a cohesive polity (the Coalition of Congressional Republics) by the year 2077 following a massive interplanetary conflict between Earth and her colonies. Even so, its innovation during times of war eventually led to humanity uncovering the secrets of barospace, allowing the construction of the Tepiltzin-Csanád Drive and mankind to ascend as an interstellar empire. In the modern day, however, not all humans live or seek to reside under the Coalition. Within what can be considered human space, fringe polities such as the Astral Federation and Allavire Commonality exist independent of Coalition authority, and multiple other insurrectionist groups operate within the CCR as a means to have stellar nations break free from its bureaucratic control.

Modernly, *Homo sapiens* can still be considered one cohesive species, as artificial changes to the baseline human genome has been deemed illegal by the Coalition (and even other breakaway polities) since the 22nd century. Nevertheless, modern humans have become partial to cybernetic augmentation and non-hereditary biological augmentation to improve their natural strengths. Their cultural diversity is also now more varied than ever before in prior human history, with over one thousand settled worlds existing within human space accommodating all sorts of peoples and groups.

## Scale

As of 2698, the extent of human-settled space includes over a thousand planets in addition to tens of thousands of other planemos and artificial stations.

## Culture and society

### Race and ethnicity

Originally considered an "offensive and antiquated" concept in the 21st century, the term *race* has been resurrected by Coalition anthropologists and ethnologists to substitute as a hypothetical sub-clade for a subspecies. Races, as defined by the International Taxonomic Board at the Coalition Center of Biotechnology in Hong Kong in the 2100s, are as follows:

> *...in the terms of a biological sophont species, a **race** is a special taxonomic clade of **subspecies** that includes wide groups of culturally and biologically affiliated **ethnicities**.*
>
>

The following recognized races of humanity are as follows:

* **Afrodescendant**, also colloquially known as **Black**; composed of ethnicities with a majority genetic heritage to the African continent, dating over millennia. This includes those of North African ancestry, such as the Amazigh.
* **Ameridescendant**, also colloquially known as **Native American** or **Amerindian**; composed of ethnicities with a majority genetic heritage to the American continent, dating over millennia. This includes North American, Mesoamerican, and South American heritages.
* **Asiadescendant**, also colloquially known as **Asian**; composed of ethnicities with a majority genetic heritage to the Asian continent, dating over millennia. This includes those from the Middle East.
* **Eurodescendant**, also colloquially known as **White** or **Caucasian**; composed of ethnicities with a majority genetic heritage to the European continent, dating over millennia.
* **Oceaniadescendant,** also colloquially known as **Pacific Islanders** or **Oceanians**; composed of ethnicities with a majority genetic heritage to the region of Oceania, dating over millennia.

To further accommodate for peoples with significant cultural diversity, ethnicity has now also been adopted as a special taxonomic clade, defined as follows:

> *...in the terms of a biological sophont species, an **ethnicity** is a special taxonomic clade of **race** that accurately defines a group of culturally and biologically affiliated individuals, specifically within a geographic region of interest.*
>
>

As a result of how practically all of humanity are baseline humans, and that baseline humans qualify as a subspecies of their own (*Homo sapiens sapiens*) under taxonomic ruling, these terms have now been accepted by the wider human superculture. Those that are **"mixed"**, or descend from two or more races, are not officially catalogued as such in demographic and medical records; instead, they are either assigned a single race or multiple inherited races at the behest of the parent or similar figure.

As of the 27th century, five races and nearly two thousand official ethnicities exist.

*Work in progress.*