[net.misc] our common female ancestor

budd@arizona.UUCP (tim budd) (11/23/83)

   I'm surprised no one has suggested that, 50,000 to 500,000 years ago,
a large rectangular monolith landed somewhere on the earth, selected
a single female from a population of primative ape-like creatures,
instructed her in the use of the opposing thumb as a useful appendage in
tool building, clubbing other members of the species, etc etc.  Thereby
insuring her dominance over other members of her species and her eventual
position as common ancestor of an entire people.  This
monolith then disappeared, traveling to somewhere in the vicinity of
Jupiter, only to be (will be?) discovered sometime in the 21st century.

(First we have to wait for the University of Illinois to finish building HAL).