In an artificial world

The passage from animal to human took a long time, and is still quite mysterious. The two basic elements seem to have been tools and language. This had to be accompanied by the upright position, which freed the hands and developed the glottis. Of course some animals use tools, and quite a few build homes above or below ground, and just about all life forms communicate among themselves, in one way or another. But human hands are particularly good at grasping lightly or strongly in a double coordinated action. And the human voice has such a wide range that it can name everything with a different sound. Archaeological finds seem to show that over two million years elapsed between not quite simian ancestors and modern humans, who can be traced back three hundred thousand years or more. During that vast lapse of time, the human species evolved towards a larger brain, smaller teeth, more agile hands and fleeter feet. This is peculiar. Other animals did not grow bigger brains with respect to their body mass, and their extremities merely adapted to movement in water, on land, in the air, in trees etc. This human peculiarity must be linked to the distinctive use of tools and language. Both demand large memory banks, and both develop reasoning powers. Creating, using and transmitting utensils and words encouraged brains to grow in size and capacity. And the upright position made this cerebral expansion possible. Hand held tools, especially weapons, meant standing on two legs, and things moved on from there.

Tools and language mediate the environment. The first act on it and shape it, the second describes it and transmits knowledge about it. The effect of this mediation transformed animals into humans. It seems there were several starting points, and quite a few unsuccessful branches. However, one of these lineages passed through countless generations, mingled with others and ended up as Homo sapiens, or anatomically modern humans (AMH). This lineage started out of Africa seventy to a hundred thousand years ago – finds in America suggest it was earlier - and migrated to the other four continents, apparently mixing with other compatible species (Neanderthal) and finally replacing them. Its mediation of the environment had developed considerably, with cave paintings, stone and ivory sculptures and delicately shaped flint blades. The languages spoken have left no trace, though they undoubtedly existed, as did numerous artifacts made from perishable wood, leather and plant fibres. And moving from drought ridden Africa to colder climates meant tanning hides and making clothes. As the environment was increasingly mediated, so humans became ever more separated from their animal ancestry.

Fast forward to the end of the last glacial period, to the beginnings of agriculture, the first urban concentrations and the earliest written records. By then humans had fantasised their origins as an extra-terrestrial creation. They had become so different, so special, that their existence could only be the result of a supernatural intervention. Fast forward a few more thousand years to the industrial revolution two centuries ago. By then humans had assimilated their exceptional status, and Europeans in particular seemed destined to rule the world and dominate nature. A manifest destiny based on technological tools and the language of science. The notion that humans were a species among countless others in an interdependent ecosystem was definitively swept aside. The planet could be harnessed and driven to produce an artificial brave new world. The abstraction of language would build castles in the sky, and the science of machines would push back nature to the periphery, to extinction. Tools and language had extracted humanity from its animal matrix and turned it into a universal predator. The sword and the pen have been the instruments that provided this dominion. They and their modern counterparts are the source of absolute power, of life and death, and of command and conviction. Humans have strayed far from their essential beings, and have been lured further still by private ambitions of wealth, fame and glory. They have gone too far to turn back, and now their artificial structure is beginning to fall apart.