Tools for the Planet of the Apes

I'm still busy with things that keep me from sustained writing here or on Blog@ & JustMeans, but over lunch I did get a chance to read highlights from the latest issue of New Scientist. Social enterprise types will love the special feature on renewable energy--I've been wondering about the tech re harvesting tides, so I really liked that part--but my hands-down favorite article is Tools Maketh the Monkey. Not only does it illustrate how scientists have come around to McLuhan's core theory about technology as an extension of the self that alters our perception, but it describes contemporary experiments designed to foster a human sense of self-awareness in other primates. The video above illustrates where ape communication will inevitably lead; below, a key excerpt:

Iriki's unique perspective on the problem is that tool use was the catalyst for a much more important mental breakthrough, albeit one that took 1.8 million years to unfold: the emergence of a sense of self. By this he means the ability to conceptualise one's own existence in time, plan for the future and understand "intentionality" - your capacity to change your environment.

So how did tool use give rise to a sense of self? Iriki believes the starting point is the way tools induce a modification of body image - the basic mental representation of "self" that consists of knowing where the physical body ends and the environment begins. When we use tools such as hammers or tennis rackets, we integrate them into our body image; our brains treat them as a temporary extension of our hand or arm. To turn a stone or a stick into a tool, our ancestors would have to have done the same. This, Iriki argues, led to the gradual dawning of a sense of self more sophisticated than the basic body image, creating a new evolutionary force that rapidly ratcheted up intelligence. "Once you have a sense of self, you can intentionally control the environment, and that modified environment in turn puts selection pressure on your brain," Iriki says. He has dubbed this dynamic, two-way interaction between brain and environment "intentional niche construction", and argues that it is the missing link in the story of human evolution.

Sense of self was crucial for another reason: it allowed our ancestors to conceive of the existence of other selves, each with their own intentions. This is the essence of "theory of mind", which is what underpins our shared understanding and hence communication, language, society and culture.