Man As An Evolution Of The Machine

When we think about the evolution of technology, many offer a dystopian, bleak projection, whereby humans are controlled by machines. However, how would that view change if we chart the appearance of man as beginning with technology? This is the very premise that anthropologist and archaeologist Timothy Taylor explores in his book The Artificial Ape.

This position has, in fact, already circulated in academic circles for years with the likes of Gilbert Simondon and Rene Boirel. What Taylor expands upon is how this theory could have actually occurred through analysis of the archaeological finds.

New Scientist reports:

So you are saying that technology came before humans?

The archaeological record shows chipped stone tool technologies earlier than 2.5 million years ago. That’s the smoking gun. The oldest fossil specimen of the genus Homo is at most 2.2 million years old. That’s a gap of more than 300,000 years – more than the total length of time that Homo sapiens has been on the planet. This suggests that earlier hominins called australopithecines were responsible for the stone tools.

The results of such intervention is a species that is reliant on technology from its very definition as a species. Outsourcing skills to technological solutions is, thus, endemic to the entire culture of modern humans, and thus dystopian future presented by the influx of computers and computation is not necessarily foreign to the human system.

Taylor explains how technology is shaping humanity:

You write in the book that this led to a “survival of the weakest”. What does this mean?

Technology allows us to accumulate biological deficits: we lost our sharp fingernails because we had cutting tools, we lost our heavy jaw musculature thanks to stone tools. These changes reduced our basic aggression, increased manual dexterity and made males and females more similar. Biological deficits continue today. For example, modern human eyesight is on average worse than that of humans 10,000 years ago.

Unlike other animals, we don’t adapt to environments – we adapt environments to us. We just passed a point where more people on the planet live in cities than not. We are extended through our technology. We now know that Neanderthals were symbolic thinkers, probably made art, had exquisite tools and bigger brains. Does that mean they were smarter?

Evidence shows that over the last 30,000 years there has been an overall decrease in brain size and the trend seems to be continuing. That’s because we can outsource our intelligence. I don’t need to remember as much as a Neanderthal because I have a computer. I don’t need such a dangerous and expensive-to-maintain biology any more. I would argue that humans are going to continue to get less biologically intelligent.

New Scientist: “Artificial ape man: How technology created humans”

[via: Read Write Web]