<<Prior to the
discovery of tool use with a species one can raise the question of
intelligence. Once you find them making the tools, then their ability to use
them is answered.
By the way, the first place I heard this was on Leno last night. What is the
source for this info? The oldest tools are dated to between 2.4 and 2.5
million years ago so your date is a little off or these are not the oldest
tools in the world.>>
I refer to the article in this morning's L.A. Times:
<<Scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of the world's oldest tools--a
cache of hammer stones and rudimentary knives about 2.5 million years
old--showing that the mysterious pre-human creatures who fashioned the
implements were "surprisingly sophisticated" toolmakers.>>
The story describes how researchers from Rutgers U., working in the Gona
Valley of Ethiopia, unearthed 3,000 sharp-edged stone cutting tools. This,
according to the story, pushes back the origins of this technology 250,000
years. The tools are examples of the style known as the Oldowan stone tool
industry.
This is not good news for Glenn's theory. As the story notes:
<<Surprisingly, these earliest toolmakers were slow to improve on their
invention, making the same tools virtually unchanged for almost a million
years.>>
It's not surprising to me. Modern humanity is a record of inexorable, rapid,
ever upward artistic and technological advancement. But the stone tool
industry is striking evidence of lackluster stagnation. Even moreso now,
because the time has been pushed back another 250,000 years! These were not
human beings. When you put it all together on a time line, as the Times story
does, it's a STRIKING lack of innovation. We're talking ONE MILLION YEARS
here, folks. ONE MILLION YEARS without advancement. Think about that. Glenn
has proposed a "technological dark age," but what it turns to be now is
technological stasis of an incredible sort. They had the tools and technology.
They didn't have the humanity.
This confirms again the huge gap between modern man and other hominidae. It's
a devastating blow to Glenn's theory.
Jim