Early Humans and the Environment
Approximately 3.5 million years ago our ancestors first learned to walk upright. They were “homo erectus”, and with this innovation of walking upright they began to appreciated some things that we take for granted today like having our hands free, and increased mobility. As humans progressed along their history they earned the distinction of “homo sapiens”. This title was conferred as the brain casing increased in size indicating the developmental process of human thought. Our ability for abstract thought has given us the ability to effect the places where we live. Today we have the distinction of “homo sapiens sapiens”, and we are spectators of the ever more rapid pace of human
…show more content…
Technology is embodied in such things as the houses (or dormitories) that we live in, the computers that we write our papers on, the telephones that we talk to our friends and family on, the televisions that we watch, and video games that we play… the list goes on. But life hasn’t always been like this. The chain of events and inventions that lead up the things we take for granted today started millions of years ago when humans first walked upright. Early humans began as just another animal living in a world where everything was uncertain. Their main concern was where their next meal was coming from. As time passed they learned how to gather, and where to find the best food. This lifestyle has been termed a hunter/gatherer lifestyle, and according to Thomas Hobbes it was “nasty, brutish, and short”. This lifestyle, though, was all that humans and their abilities were capable of sustaining. The state of the cultural and physical environment made it so that “the population was small, thinly spread, living in groups which probably depended mainly on the gathering of nuts, seeds and plants, which they would have supplemented by scavenging dead animals killed by other predators and perhaps hunting of a few small mammals.”(Ponting, 19) They needed to move around to find food, and couldn’t afford to be weighed down with large amounts of people. There is evidence of such things as infanticide, abandonment of the elderly, and other methods
Technology is the epitome of human evolution. We are the only species we know of to have successfully developed tools, not just primitive ones, that’s been done before by other organisms. The tools I’m talking about are the ones which enhance our senses beyond their human abilities. Tools like GPS, farming equipment, calculators. These are tools that push the limits of human ability beyond what can be naturally achieved. Through these tools we can navigate the earth on a scale far beyond our ancestors, we can turn a field that would have previously taken months, and we can compute mathematics that further our understanding of our very existence. However, these tools might be taking more than they give; at least that’s what Nicholas Carr argues in his essay A Thing Like Me. In his
These Humans formed complex social hierarchies, leading to governments and warring states, who claimed the land as their own. Long after the times of cavemen and clubs, Humanity produced ever more complex technology as time passed. With technology, Humanity solved problems as they arose. The advent of this technology saw the rise of Industry, which through massive machines, power plants, cities, and vehicles poisoned the very earth they called home. The ceaseless fighting of governments led to technology with only one purpose: to destroy the enemy.
Technology has become apart of the human way of life. Simply step outside and technology can be seen everywhere. It aids not only our nation, but the world as a whole. Yet there was a point an time in history where technology didn't exists; it was just a mere thought. Such an idea was once thought to be inhuman or idiotic. It was portrayed as witch craft, unnatural, and frond upon because people were unwilling to change and accept new ideas. Yet when beliefs are tested, broken down, and explained, then greatness comes about it. There are people who brave enough to test these theories, without them we wouldn't be where we are today. Technology has been one small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind.
This chapter beings explaining the evolution of mankind. Prior to 11,000 BCE, all humans were equal. Due to our evolutionary past, we branched off from apes to humans and spread around the world. Nearly 4 million years ago, humans began their mark on earth in Africa. Jared Diamond compares human development on all seven continents about 13,000 years ago. Although many early humans were found primarily in Eurasia and Africa, over time they expanded and gained new territory. The early humans created tools as they evolved, and many became hunter and gatherers. Then, human history made a Great Leap Forward around 40,000 BCE. The Great Leap Forward was when the earliest humans created new technology and exciting innovations that did not exist previously
The third part to the human dilemma is that all nonhuman species have evolved to survive their physical habitats, and the human species originally evolved to do this as well. However, human beings have altered the world more in the last ten thousand years, than the ancestors did in the first four million years. We have changed the environment to fit our needs, instead of changing our needs to fit the environment. Most importantly, humans have built entirely new environments, such as farms, villages, cities and towns. The cycling pattern of human expansion and creations has changed the human race from small groups of hunters and gatherers, into a very complex civilization.
The belief that various living organisms emerged from previous organisms throughout the history of the earth can be associated with the term evolution. One can therefore assume that there is a vast likelihood that prehistoric evolutionary processes have a significant impact on human behavior today. This paper hypothesizes that the human mind has information-processing mechanisms that are known as adaptions which have developed over time. It is believed that these adaptions were formed by natural selection in ancestral surroundings and have specialised functions that shape behaviour to allow one to solve specific adaptive challenges. Thus evolutionary psychologists suggest that individuals have what Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides, and John
Civilizations have always been shaped by their technological advances. Whether it was the invention of the printing press or the creation of the personal computer, technology has had a massive impact on the development of mankind. Technology has brought us the ability to educate, heal, and radically improve the lives of the average person. But, if we strip away our cars and planes, our cell phones and our computers, are we that different than many of the ancient societies that we have studied?
Humans are the most unique species on Earth. We have gained the ability to things never accomplished before on Earth. We can control our environment, domesticate other species, and more importantly, form complex connections and societies with one another. However, it is widely debated about how we evolved from simple ape-like foragers to the meat-eating, community-building species we are today. In this paper, we will be looking at three authors: Richard Wrangham, Pat Shipman, and Frans de Wall. Each of which approach this question from different directions.
to be grown trees have to be cut down and I have explained the effects
There was a great shift in humanity along the first slow paced and crude developments of our now diverse complexity as a species. Our ancestors embarked through an unimaginable dived from primitive beings to our ever evolving modern complexity. At a glance, this change from one way of life to another seems impossible.
History is a dynamic topic due to the innumerable factors that define its outcome. To understand how history is shaped, it is important to look at both the advantageous and disadvantageous aspects of the theme relating to the interaction between humans and the environment relating to demography and disease, and technology. The theme relating to the formation of political entities is important in history because a political entity shows ideological and technological innovation. Political entities form various political structures and forms of governance that led to conflicts that illustrated the human capacity for violence. Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel details the human interaction with the environment through the extensive detail
Humans have existed on Earth for approximately 3.4 million years. The oldest known human ancestor is "Lucy," an Australopithecus. Over this extensive period of time, humans have evolved significantly. Homo Sapiens have grown from 3 to almost 6 feet (average), lost most of the body hair, became leaner and adapted to walking. Humans have come a long way, from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens, from living in trees to living in cities. Slowly, through hundreds of thousands of years, we mutated over and over again, natural selection ensuring that no destructive mutations continue. From the slow evolution, four distinctive species emerged and died out, each giving way to its ' descendant: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalesis, and Homo sapiens Sapiens.
The third artifact to answer my question is a collage. The collage contains images and quotes about technology. During the creation of this collage I realized that technology isn’t just computers or smartphones. It’s anything that has been invented to make the tasks of life easier. Some of the most notable inventions pictured in the collage are: fire (the containment of), simple machines, the steel plow, the steam engine, the airplane, the light bulb, penicillin, the computer, and the internet (Baxter). The main point of the collage is that we increment technology over time, that we affect technology in a way that allows us to progress the abilities of humanity.
Where would we be without technology? The number of things that we are now capable of doing is infinite because of the technology we have access to. This technology is also changing the way we think, write and concentrate. Cell/ smart phones along with texting and being able to Google practically everything have all played a role in the way we think and do things in today’s society.
Nearly everything that a human does is in response to the environment. Our lives are defined by what is around us and what we find in front of us, whether this means accepting, dealing with or changing it. This has been the pattern since primates first stood up and became Homo erectus, and has continued until we considered ourselves doubly wise. The shape of the land affected where humans moved. Weather was something with which to contend. Fire affected humans until they conquered it – and herein lies the core of the relationship. The earth affects humans, and humans affect it back, viewing characteristics and patterns as problems and challenges, and finding a solution.