Why is this all important though?

What if? On a visit to D.C. (post-pandemic, of course), you happen to find yourself standing in an elevator next to congressional leaders taking a tour of the museum you are in. They notice you are carrying some papers about human evolution and they ask you what they are about. With that opening, lay out your best four minute ‘elevator speech’ as to why the next federal budget should include additional funding for the study of human evolution.

So why is it important? In order to understand ourselves as a species, we need to know where we came from and how we got to this point. In order to understand an answer to a question we must first know the question that is being asked. I think it is important to know about our ancestors to understand where our cultures came from, how our religions developed, how our brains work, why we do the things we do, and etc. Having more information about our past can lead us to begin to piece together what the future may hold for us as a species.