Man is a tool-using animal….Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.
Thomas Carlyle
On Boswell’s Life of Johnson
For a technologist this seems an accurate quote, an order affirming proclamation. In the chaos of biological necessity, we ask ourselves questions of life and seek purposeful answers. Man’s intellect in all its glory serves only one master, one purpose, to build. Without our instruments of engineering, we are weak animals with little else to compete against the onslaught of evolution.
Is there nothing more to humankind than the machines we build? Does technology mark our progress in the annals of time? Is our biologic imperative driving us to create a better mousetrap? Are we nothing without our tools?
We cannot argue that we are tool-using animals. It is in fact a defining characteristic of our species. Anthropologists mark our development with the evolution of our tools. Historians look to how we use those tools in building civilizations. Our entire modern civilization is obviously built around our machines and continual advancement of our devices.
Remove the tools, and what are we? What would become of humankind? It is not an easy question to answer. Those with strong spiritual ties may believe that humans are judged by God on our spirituality and morality. There are numerous examples of tribes of humans who don’t rely as heavily on modern technology as the rest of civilization. Yet, even these few tribal examples, the Native Americans included, still use and rely on tools to survive. Even the simplest of devices are creations of man, tools we use and in Carlyle’s view; those tools define us as beings.
It’s a tough question to answer. Even tougher to stomach. Deep inside me, something cries out in panic that this can’t be true. There has to be something more to us, than the tools we make. Our revulsion to this statement is emotional, and very human. However, it doesn’t bring us any closer to an answer. I will have to think on this further and explore the validity of this statement. I’d like to believe there is more to us beings than the technology we build. The trick is to answer the question with fact and logic, reasoning the truth behind our existence. Plato and Socrates would make far better philosophers to ponder this question; I’ll have to make do with what I have.
