Humans and Handaxes, iDolls and iPods [A Technological Ecology Part I]

Is a marionette alive? Sure, when the puppet’s strings aren’t pulled by the puppeteer, the character lies limp. But when a skilled individual operates the strings, he can make the simple puppet live, dance and emote. By putting effort into the puppet, the machine acquires a life of its own. What about our factories? What about our airplanes?

We’re not the first tool users. Beavers and crows have beat us by a few million years. All the great apes either have or can easily learn tool use. So what makes us so special? I’m going to tell you a story, one that is at least partially conjecture. I come to some conclusions which haven’t been proved by controlled tests like a psychologist. I am an anthropologist.

This much at least is true. For hundreds of thousands of years, there was absolutely no technological advancement. The technology that man had was extremely simple, called a hand axe. 

This is the image of the longest used tool in human history. It began to be used 2.5 million years ago, when humans were a different species: Homo Erectus. To give you some perspective on the time scale, the first evidence we have of human controlled fire is 1.9 million years. Of course this probably wasn’t the first technology, even chimpanzees make wooden spears. However, it was the first highly valued piece of technology possessed by early humans. A spear can be made with any stick with sufficient length. A potential handaxe had to be chosen from many different kinds of rocks, carefully chipped and shaped into the proper teardrop shape.

The handaxe is just as big as it sounds, as big as the palm of your hand. Try to imagine the scenario. You’re a soft, fleshy human, walking with your extended family through extremely hostile terrain. Aside from your keen mind, your handaxe is your only tool against apex predator. Handaxes are sharp at the edges, and harder than any lion’s claw. A swift blow to the head could fell even the most frightening predator. An impressive tool, where the best hope before its invention was “Run and hope the jaguar catches someone else.”

It seems like the idea of Power within the palm of your hand had an actual effect upon the human race. The Babylonians had a tiny idol which would fit into their pouches (as this was before pockets. 

Have a look

iDolls

That’s right, the same size as your iPhone. And strangely, they seem to fulfill an extremely similar purpose. The ancient babylonians actually believed in gods, not like we do with our prayers and the hope that something out there will respond but it never does. No, the Babylonians heard the voices of their gods in their head, and they gazed into the eyes of their iDolls to do it.

We live in a world obsessed with personal caloric intake. There is an obesity epidemic sweeping the nation, and there are diet plans and pills floating around, trying to make a buck off of the overweight. Something that is not often considered, however, is the total caloric intake of a person, rather than just the diet based intake. Every day, billions of people the world over plug in a cell phone. The tiny device couldn’t survive without humans; it would lie dormant as animals scrabble in the streets. But as soon as the battery was charged, the cell phone would light up once more and have its tiny, vibrating life.

Machines follow the principles of evolution A useful machine will be used more often. Industrial Revolution era factories got prime real estate along rivers to allow them to easily function. Today, we tap deep into the earth to get the things we need to power our factories and our gadgets. We’ve become domesticated by our things. Our technology gives us a great many things, but it demands sacrifices. 

Tags: Anthropology Long Reads Technology iPhone iPod