Tools and the Development of Contemporary Society
From the first stone hammer to modern day technology, our ability to make and propensity to use tools influences our physical, mental, and social evolution. At every step we make choices—for better or worse—that determine who we are and the challenges we face.
Featured Book
The Axemaker’s Gift
Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture
James Burke and Robert Ornstein
Explore the double-edged history of human culture—how those with capacity for sequential analysis generated technologies to “cut and control” the world and and shape their community.
The Great Attention Heist
John Bell and John Zada
To give and receive attention is a fundamental human need and a cornerstone of human behavior. Increasingly, propagandists, media executives, and internet moguls are using new technology to turn our attention into a commodity for profit. What does this means for our humanity and our culture?
Featured Books
Against the Grain
A Deep History of the Earliest States
James C. Scott
When early humans lived in settled communities and devoted their time to growing grains and caring for animals, were they really better off?
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond
Was the Eurasian culture able to use tools to conquer and dominate the world a result of innate differences in people—or was really due to different environmental conditions like geography and climate?
1491
New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
Contrary to popular myths, pre-Columbian Indians were landscaping, manipulating, and even genetically engineering their world in ways we are only beginning to understand.
1493
Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Charles C. Mann
How the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and sowed the seeds of today’s fiercest political disputes.
Travel the Journey
Discovering Our Distant Ancestors
Tools and the Development of Contemporary Society
Estonia, The Digital Republic
Nathan Heller, New Yorker
A government effort to transform the country from a state into a digital society has made Estonian life more efficient. Through its government sponsored nation-wide digital network, citizens of Estonia can handle almost all aspects of their daily lives online and even extended the opportunity and benefits to residents of other countries. The project shows how a truly global, borderless society can function.
The Case Against Civilization: Did Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors Have It Better?
John Lanchester, New Yorker
We flatter ourselves, says Lanchester, by believing that the “dark age” existence of our hunter-gatherer progenitors was so grim and our modern, civilized one so great. Drawing on two recent works he suggests this may not be the case. Is there a lesson to be learned from the radical egalitarianism of their hunter-gatherer way of life?