History Main / HumanityIsYoung

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' Terragen life (not just humans) has only been space-faring for 10,600 years or so. Of the Xenosophont races that have been contacted the Silent Ones have been at their present state for at least 150,000 while Muuh civilization is millions of years old. On the other hand we did bootstrap a number of less advanced races such as the To'ul'h.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', humans are one of the most recent races to make first contact, having been on the galactic stage for less than forty years by the third game. The only newer races are those limited to background lore (e.g. raloi, Virtual Aliens, kirik). Also overlaps with HumansAreDiplomats, since we're also essentially taking over the universe. Ask the other "older" races, particularly the Batarians, and they may instead say HumansAreTheRealMonsters.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Mostly played straight in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'', though on somewhat greater timescales than is usual. The Imperium of Man may well be ten thousand years old, and humanity may well have had interstellar travel for the last 37,000 years, yet the Eldar, Orks and Necrons are many times older still. However, the situation is reversed with the Tau, who were primitive hunter-gatherers just 6,000 years ago, in fact they would have been wiped out by the Imperium if a freak warp storm hadn't destroyed the colonization fleet. Culturally the Tau embody a kind of naive youthful optimism - their society is bright, hopeful, scientifically-minded and technologically advanced, compared to the stagnant, superstitious and highly xenophobic Imperium of Man that dominates the galaxy. It's also played with in that humanity is in ''serious'' decline; the modern tech is obviously below the Eldar and Necrons, but the few times we've seen technology from humanity's height at full power it utterly [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] them (though Eldar and Necron tech from ''their'' height is even more powerful - as in "[[Literature/ForgesOfMars retroactively make the universe not exist]]" powerful).
[[/folder]]

* In TheMovie of ''Film/GreenLantern'', Tomar-Tu calls Hal Jordan's species young, trying to encourage Hal to prove his worth to the other Lanterns. The other Lanterns, and the Immortals, however, see his humanity as a weakness and [[FantasticRacism treat him as a member of a lower species.]]

If there are interstellar alien races out there they are most likely to be several thousand if not millions of years older than our civilization, but for all we know we are the only extant sapient life in the universe.

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' humans are made last by the Valar. First Iluvatar made the Valar (demigods), one of which made the dwarves before Iluvatar had planed to awaken the elves, so Iluvatar told the Valar to keep the Dwarves in hibernation until he had released the Elves. Only once those two races had existed for a long time did Iluvatar finally create or awaken men. They have the least life-span of any race of middle earth (hobbits and dwarves make it to the hundreds, Elves on forever) and are seen to be coming into their own only in the third age.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', humans are relatively new to interstellar travel: The first other race they met was the Centauri (who were, from the interstellar perspective, the ones who discovered them), and the Minbari have reportedly been a spacefaring race for millennia.

** Q views humans (and by extension the federation) as dangerously young. Although he tends to lean more towards borderline FantasticRacism, and thus has to conduct the ever-increasingly difficult tests in order to prove, quote, "humanity's worth".

* Q in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Although he tends to lean more towards borderline FantasticRacism, and thus has to conduct the ever-increasingly difficult tests in order to prove, quote, "humanity's worth".
** As are the Vulcans, but with FantasticRacism that declines from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' to ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Even in Deep Space Nine, at least [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E04TakeMeOutToTheHolosuite one Vulcan captain]] apparently built his entire academic career out of this (and taunting Sisko in particular).
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', humans are relatively new to interstellar travel: The first other race they met was the Centauri (who were, from the interstellar perspective, the ones who discovered them), and the Minbari have reportedly been a spacefaring race for millennia.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', humans are one of the most recent races to make first contact, having been on the galactic stage for less than forty years by the third game. The only newer races are those limited to background lore (e.g. raloi, Virtual Aliens, kirik). Also overlaps with HumansAreDiplomats, since we're also essentially taking over the universe.
** Ask the other "older" races, particularly the Batarians, and they may instead say HumansAreTheRealMonsters.
* The termites of ''Literature/ProfessorMmaasLecture'' state humanity to be a species as young as a nymph (termite young).

* In ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' humans are made last by the Valar. First Iluvatar made the Valar (demigods), one of which made the dwarves before Iluvatar had planed to awaken the elves, so Iluvatar told the Valar to keep the Dwarves in hibernation until he had released the Elves. Only once those two races had existed for a long time did Iluvatar finally create or awaken men. They have the least life-span of any race of middle earth (hobbits and dwarves make it to the hundreds, Elves on forever) and are seen to be coming into their own only in the third age.
* Mostly played straight in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'', though on somewhat greater timescales than is usual. The Imperium of Man may well be ten thousand years old, and humanity may well have had interstellar travel for the last 37,000 years, yet the Eldar, Orks and Necrons are many times older still. However, the situation is reversed with the Tau, who were primitive hunter-gatherers just 6,000 years ago, in fact they would have been wiped out by the Imperium if a freak warp storm hadn't destroyed the colonization fleet. Culturally the Tau embody a kind of naive youthful optimism - their society is bright, hopeful, scientifically-minded and technologically advanced, compared to the stagnant, superstitious and highly xenophobic Imperium of Man that dominates the galaxy. It's also played with in that humanity is in ''serious'' decline; the modern tech is obviously below the Eldar and Necrons, but the few times we've seen technology from humanity's height at full power it utterly [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] them (though Eldar and Necron tech from ''their'' height is even more powerful - as in "[[Literature/ForgesOfMars retroactively make the universe not exist]]" powerful).
* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' Terragen life (not just humans) has only been space-faring for 10,600 years or so. Of the Xenosophont races that have been contacted the Silent Ones have been at their present state for at least 150,000 while Muuh civilization is millions of years old. On the other hand we did bootstrap a number of less advanced races such as the To'ul'h.
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', humanity has been a part of galactic civilization for a millennium. That civilization is around 20,000 years old, and there are a handful of species with roots that go back for ''thousands'' of millennia.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has this as something of the general Asgardian attitude towards humanity - we're young and still finding our way, while they're the undisputed heavyweight champions of the universe that was civilised while humanity was still evolving from monkeys, but they [[HumansAreWarriors like]] [[HumansAreSurvivors our]] [[{{Determinator}} style]] and see [[HumansAreSpecial our potential]]. Furthermore, some of the more self aware Asgardians (Thor, for example) note that 'more advanced' does not mean 'better'.
** Everyone else, meanwhile, sees Earth as InsignificantBluePlanet that is barely civilised at best and too much trouble for its own good, and a manifestation of Asgardian eccentricity. Others who get a closer look at Earth, however, like Mar-Vell and the late Jor-El, saw a certain something in humanity.

* In Creator/AndreNorton's SF universe, not only are there species with recorded histories many times humanity's entire existence, these species have no records of the Forerunner civilizations that flourished before them.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', humans are one of the most recent races to make first contact. Also overlaps with HumansAreDiplomats, since we're also essentially taking over the universe.

* Mostly played straight in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'', though on somewhat greater timescales than is usual. The Imperium of Man may well be ten thousand years old, and humanity may well have had interstellar travel for the last 37,000 years, yet the Eldar, Orks and Necrons are many times older still. However, the situation is reversed with the Tau, who were primitive hunter-gatherers just 6,000 years ago, in fact they would have been wiped out by the Imperium if a freak warp storm hadn't destroyed the colonization fleet. Culturally the Tau embody a kind of naive youthful optimism - their society is bright, hopeful, scientifically-minded and technologically advanced, compared to the stagnant, superstitious and highly xenophobic Imperium of Man that dominates the galaxy. It's also played with in that humanity is in ''serious'' decline; the modern tech is obviously below the Eldar and Necrons, but the few times we've seen technology from humanity's height at full power it utterly [[CurbStompBattle curb stomped]] them.

* Occasionally brought up in the ''StargateVerse'', when humanity meets the Nox and the Asgard, two of the Four Races that were the most advanced civilizations in the local galactic group. The Nox are rather patronizing and condescending about it, while the Asgard see potential in humanity and are willing to help the species along in its development, saying that one day, human civilization could stand among the Four as equals... as a Fifth Race.

So, you're a human, and you've just met a never-before-seen race of extraterrestrials, and chances are you feel [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet quite insignificant]] compared to the hyper-advanced culture in front of you. Often, the species will appear YoungerThanTheyLook, in order to make the surroundings feel more comfortable. The being will then kneel down in front in you and say, in a gentle, soothing voice something to the effect of "You humans are so young, yet in your short lifetime you have accompanied so much." In other cases, when confronted with multiple races, one group, usually a FiveManBand, will be willing to accept the human, while the rest of the race dish out doses of FantasticRacism. Contrast EarthIsYoung, where the planet, not the species has been in existence for a short time, and WeAreAsMayflies, which is about humans being young as individuals.

This can also occur in fantasy genre when there are multiple races as well. As opposed to {{Humans are Average}} humans will be the youngest race in terms of individual life span or time on the planet. Starting with the elves present in Lord of the Rings almost any fantasy book that incorperates elves or some elf equivilant has humans in contrast being a young species.

This may exist because humans in Real Life have existed for a small fraction of the evolutionary, geologic, and cosmic timescales. Having humans be young gives an author the ability to point out human flaws in relation to an old race.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', humans are relatively new to interstellar travel: The first other race they met was the Centauri (who were, from the interstellar perspective, the ones who discovered them), and the Minbari have reportedly been a spacefaring race for millenia.

** Ask the other "older" races, particularly the Batarians, and they may instead say HumansAreTheRealMonsters

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', humanity has been a part of galactic civilization for a millennium. That civilization is around 20,000 years old, and there are a handful of species with roots that go back for ''thousands'' of millenia

* In Creator/AndreNorton's SF universe, not only are there species with recorded histories many times humanity's entire existence, these species have no records of the Forerunner civilizations that flourished before it.

* In the ''TransformersFilmSeries'', this is the sole reason why Optimus Prime must protect the humans, and why Megatron must destroy them.

* In ''OrionsArm'' Terragen life (not just humans) has only been space-faring for 10,600 years or so. Of the Xenosophont races that have been contacted the Silent Ones have been at their present state for at least 150,000 while Muuh civilization is millions of years old. On the other hand we did bootstrap a number of less advanced races such as the To'ul'h.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' humanity has been a part of galactic civilization for a millennium, that civilization is around 20,000 years old. And the Gatekeepers whose PortalNetwork built that civilization have been at it for 100,000, some individual Gatekeepers have been around since before humans had agriculture, and their roots go back six million years or so.

* Mostly played straight in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'', though on somewhat greater timescales than is usual. The Imperium of Man may well be ten thousand years old, and humanity may well have had interstellar travel for the last 37,000 years, yet the Eldar, Orks and Necrons are many times older still. However, the situation is reversed with the Tau, who were primitive hunter-gatherers just 6,000 years ago, in fact they would have been wiped out by the Imperium if a freak warp storm hadn't destroyed the colonization fleet. Culturally the Tau embody a kind of naive youthful optimism - their society is bright, hopeful, scientifically-minded and technologically advanced, compared to the stagnant, superstitious and highly xenophobic Imperium of Man that dominates the galaxy.

** As are the Vulcans, but with FantasticRacism that declines from ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' to ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.