Technology

Many animal species use tools, and some, such as crows and apes, can even create them. But only our species has taken this ability to such an extreme that it can be said that we maintain an evolutionary symbiosis with these tools. In other words, our ability to develop complex tools increased our intelligence, allowing us to manufacture even more complex tools. This, in turn, launched a new phase in this cycle, and after several million years it finally led to the modern human, who continues to develop tools that will likely continue to transform the species. Of course, this history has not always followed a linear path. In the 9,000 years since humans discovered agriculture and cattle farming, many inventions were discovered many times and forgotten nearly as many times. Today we are surprised to learn that the Romans knew about concrete and that they had taxis and hamburger stands or that the Greeks developed the basic principles of the locomotive and the steam engine (although, oddly enough, they never combined the two to invent the railroad). We have developed the most absurd theories to explain the construction of the pyramids in Egypt or the moai of Easter Island. This winding history, with steps forward and steps backward, can be explained thus: technical inventions are a specific response to the specific needs of a given human group, and when these needs or the people who needed to meet those needs disappear or change, the inventions associated with them also disappear or change.