How Technology Shaped Our Bodies
Think humans have stopped evolving? Not since 2.6 million years ago when we started using stones.
Our brains are getting smaller. Our attention patterns are changing. And yet that smartphone in your hand shares a relationship with our ancestors of around 2.6 million years ago who crafted the first stone tools. That’s about when our brains began to rewire and physical changes started to happen. And if you think we’re done evolving with technology, we’re not.
Those very early tools that lead to a rewiring of our brains enabled us to develop the technology of language, then writing, cave painting and so on. Which enabled us to form into groups and clans, then tribes, then societies and nations. Culture became our sort of operating system, HumanOS, to make this all happen.
The physiological changes that first happened were the development of fine motor controls of our hands, our thumbs became more pronounced, changing the very structure of our hands. Our jaws became weaker as we used tools to process our food. Although we probably all chewed rather loudly.
This all reorganised our brain too. Making tools became more complex as we needed sequential planning. This expanded our prefrontal cortex. The development of the Broca’s area initially helped with…
