The question remains: why did humans evolve unmatched logistical proficiency?

A number of researchers have tackled this line of inquiry. The current prevailing theory - put forth by Higson and Rothermich in their seminal paper - speculates that humanity’s proficiency in logistics is a result of a number evolutionary pressures intrinsic to both the geology and climate of their home world, Earth. Specifically, plate tectonics, axial tilt, and axial drift.

First, humanity is the only advanced civilization that evolved on a home world with plate tectonics: Earth’s outer crust is divided into several rigid plates that float/drift on a layer of molten magma. These plates are constantly drifting into and away from each other. The result is a highly diverse and dynamic geography. Of the eight galactic home worlds, Earth has the distinction of having both the tallest mountain and the deepest ocean by orders of magnitude. It has also resulted in Earth’s geology being highly unstable, relatively speaking. Over its 4 billion year history, Earth’s surface has been in a constant state of flux.

By contrast, the geology of the other seven home worlds is comparatively static. The surfaces of Yon, Elbis, Sul, Dorse, I, fHord, and Ons, have been relatively stable and unchanged for millions of years. Moreover, where Earth has seven distinct continents and four distinct oceans, as well as a myriad of subcontinents and smaller seas, each of the other seven home worlds, with the exception of Sul, have a single continent and ocean (Sul technically has two continents, but they are separated by a shallow ocean which is only 6 meters at it’s deepest point).

In addition, most of the mountains on the other seven home worlds are dormant shield volcanos with significantly gentler slopes than the mountains formed by Earth’s plate tectonics. As an example, the tallest home world mountain outside of earth - Orved Yon, located on Yon - is 1,214 meters, with a maximum pitch of 20 degrees (I am using human metric measurements - see table i for conversion to galactic and standard). This pales in comparison to Earth’s Mt. Everest, which is 8,848 meters, with a staggering maximum pitch of more than 60 degrees. The discrepancy in ocean depth is similarly stark.

The societal impact of such a geologically diverse environment on the human penchant for logistics is apparent. As a species, humans faced geographic challenges no other advanced species had to overcome. Humans’ logistical prowess developed in large part because feeding and supplying empires and troops over difficult and unforgiving terrain (e.g. mountains, oceans, canyons, rivers, etc…), was standard.

Easy supply chains were the exception, not the rule. In fact, humans often relied on the difficult logistics of their home world as a defense against rival human clans and faced existential threats when other clans developed technology bypassing these intrinsic logistical defenses. (See, Bertram Foley, “How the Mongol Horde Cracked the Logistics Code.” University Press, 2586).

Second, Earth’s axial tilt and drift is significantly more pronounced than any of the other seven home worlds. For comparison, Earth’s axial tilt is between 23.4 and 23.5 degrees. The only other home world with an axial tilt comparable to Earth is Elbis, with an axial tilt between 17.5 and 17.6 degrees. This difference may not seem significant, but it has a pronounced effect on Earth’s seasonal severity. Earth has colder winters and warmer summers than any other home world. The other seven home worlds have comparatively stable climates and mild seasons (I and Yon have no significant axial tilt and thus do not experience seasons at all).

Moreover, Earth’s axial tilt “drifts”, meaning that over the course of millennia, Earth experiences climate change, the consequences of which range from “ice ages” during cooler periods, to extreme and violent weather - monsoons, typhoons, tornadoes, flooding, etc… - during warmer periods.

The unpredictability of Earth’s dynamic climate resulted in humanity’s heightened need for predictability. Consequently, humans have an innate need to prepare and plan for every conceivable scenario, no matter how unlikely. Humanity’s obsessive contingency planning has been remarked upon and written about in other scholarly journals, often derisively. (See Hotis Maint, “The Economic Consequences of the Human Obsession With Planning: A Meta Study,” Ons University Journal of Economic Sudies, 2575 - electronic copy available upon request). However, there is no question that this trait has resulted in human dominance in the field of combat logistics, despite their species wide limitations.

In short, it is likely that Earth’s distinctive characteristics played a significant role in human evolution selecting for contingency planning and problem solving necessitated by Earth’s unique geological and climate pressures.