tools

So, what of the use of invention?  For humans are to a large extent distinguished from other animals in their ability to use tools.  To be sure, some monkeys strip the bark from sticks and dip them into ant or termite nests, and otters use stones to crack shells.  But the human use of tools involves a change of form not present in that of other species.  A stick is still a stick, and sticks are often stripped of their bark naturally. Human tools involve a change of form not found in nature.  Their departure from nature has become more and more progressed as man has advanced over the years.  First we had wooden spears, probably not extraordinarily different from sticks found in nature.  Rocks were chipped or broken, but rocks are chipped and broken in the course of natural events.  But tools, over the years, have become less and less natural.  We can say that by creating new forms, adding to the forms that already exist, man has, to a large extent, sought to appropriate the individuation of the "or", to play the role of God.  Most tool making involves putting things together in ways not found in nature, whether metal, stones, wood and twine (bows and arrows), gasoline and numerous metal, rubber and plastic parts (cars and trucks), or the combination of entirely new molecules (plastics, various medications).  Thus, in a way not too dissimilar to that found in nature (which we have discussed in earlier posts) man has appropriated the "and", gathering things together, to increase the diversity of the "or".  Of course, what has happened over the years, is that as he has increased the diversity of a synthetic "or", he has decreased that of the natural "or" but destroying forests and causing the extinction of thousands of species.  The pace of human invention has increased exponentially during our lifetimes.  So has the death of the planet.