If Charles Darwin were alive today, he would be “appalled” at the impact human beings have had on the natural world in the past century. But he might have been impressed by email and the electric light. And he would have been thrilled that fossil discoveries during the past few decades proved him right on his idea that humankind originated in Africa.

Speaking at Iziko Museums earlier this week, Darwin’s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes said that during his life Darwin saw the “super fecundity” of nature, its overwhelming abundance and its ability to survive.

“There was little awareness of the human impact on the natural environment (in the mid-19th Century), even though there was a lot of industrial pollution and mining damage relative to the time,” Keynes said.

“(Today), he would have seen just how humans have been able to destroy almost every place in the world. There are few places left that are truly pristine.”

Keynes joined Darwin biographer Prof Janet Browne and local scientists in a panel discussion to consider what about the modern world might have surprised Darwin, if he were alive today, and what might not have. The discussion was part of a lecture series which recognised the humanity of the naturalist who was born 200 years ago, and published the groundbreaking work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection exactly 150 years. The discussion was hosted by the Africa Genome Education Institute and the University of Cape Town (UCT) Division of Human Genetics.

“He would have been surprised by the electric light, and cars, and air conditioning,” said Browne, author of Charles Darwin: The Power of Place and Charles Darwin: Voyager.

He would have been “delighted” by email. Working as he was in the mid-19th Century, much of Darwin’s life was dominated by correspondence and he enjoyed the benefits of a mail system that had improved considerably during his life.

“But what he could have done with email!” said Browne.

However the discovery of hominid fossils in Africa, and DNA, might have pleased him most, since they confirmed many of his ideas about the origin of humankind and how heredity works.

Panellist Dr Francis Thackeray, director of the Institute for Human Evolution at Wits University, said the discovery of Mrs Ples, the fossilised skull of the human-like Australopithecus africanus that was found at Sterkfontein Caves in 1947, would have come as no surprise to the naturalist.

“Darwin was a comparative anatomist. He compared human skulls and skeletons with those of other primates, and came to the remarkable conclusion that chimpanzees and gorillas were closest to humans in their anatomy.”

“He said that it’s only in Africa that you find chimps and gorillas, so concluded that the progenitor of humankind must have evolved in Africa. Mrs Ples proved him right.”

The many hominid fossils found in African in recent decades tell a story of the evolution of modern humans on this continent during the past seven million years, confirming his controversial idea that humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor before spreading out to populate so much of the world. He laid out these ideas in the 1871 publication The Descent of Man.

Darwin may not have been able to explain the exact mechanism for how traits are passed from one generation to the next, but he anticipated that it would be discovered eventually. Indeed this happened with the identification of genes and DNA.

During his voyage onboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836, amongst other things Darwin wrote about the diversity of people and different degrees of civilisation. But he noted the oneness of human beings.

“Given the depth of our knowledge about the oneness of life, and the oneness of the human species… that we are practically identical genetically, Darwin would have been disappointed to see that we have still (not overcome) the things which keep us apart,” said Prof Raj Ramesar, with UCT’s Human Genetics Research Unit.

When Darwin first conceived of the idea that life on Earth evolved slowly over time through a process of natural selection, he understood well the controversy it would spark. It took him two decades to finally publish On the Origin of Species in 1859. Yet he did not see his book as an attempt to overthrow the religious explanations for life and “creation”.

“Darwin’s idea was not necessarily a challenge to religion,” said Browne, “so he would have been depressed that 150 years after his book was published, that there is still so much controversy about religion and evolution.”

“He would have been disappointed at the emergence of fundamentalist thought, especially in the form of intelligent design.”

On the Origin of Species reinvented the idea of design and Darwin worked hard to overturn the notion of an intelligent designer, with his alternative idea about the process of adaptation.

“And yet the ghost of a special creation is still with us,” said Browne.

“Years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, people were so unhappy about the idea of the descent of man,” agreed Keynes. “Darwin would be disappointed at how the argument has grown since his death. People still find this such a difficult idea.”

Darwin’s work charted the evolution and common ancestry of species, but he also marvelled at the resilience of nature and imagined a world where species would continue to evolve and change over time.

“His last words in On the Origin of Species were about conservation,” said Keynes. “He wrote about the wonder and grandeur (of nature), about the endless forms that are evolving. He wanted to see evolution continue. Darwin would have been appalled that one species, humans, could interrupt that.”