Column / July 1999 / Tools

The Column:
July 1999, Tools

Hello and Welcome!

Tools are amazing things when you think about them. They help us to complete tasks and even to sustain ourselves, providing protection and comfort. A mere 30,000 years ago the tool of choice was a honed rock tied to a stick to use as a hammer or as a weapon (as the need dictated). In 300 BC the lighthouse at Alexandria was completed to help ships to navigate into port. Today we use tiny molecular sized objects called Microprocessors to help us to navigate from place to place and run much of our equipment. If you think about how far as humans we have come from that hammer to the microprocessor chip, you know the human journey has been quite a feat.

But of course technological advancement is merely one end of a evolutionary coin. The other end is our inner development as individuals. This too has come a long way in 30,000 years, though some pessimists may beg to differ. I like to look on the more positive side and make the note that 30,000 years ago we were sacrificing our sons and daughters, with little concern I might add, to the sun god to get a good harvest or to survive the winter. Today we know better and not only value life a bit more, but know how to weather the storms without reaching for the sacrificial knife.

So when you think about how far we have come in technology, don't forget how far we have come in humanology.

Till next time....

Early Tools
Early stone tools used by American Indians. These tools fashioned from stone have been found across North America and in parts of South America. They usually appear with the remains of large mammals, which inhabited North America during the Pleistocene epoch, or Ice Age, some 30,000 years ago.

Ptolemy authorized the building of the Pharos in 290 B.C., and when it was completed some twenty years later, it was the first lighthouse in the world and the tallest building in existence, with the exception of the Great Pyramid. The lighthouse was built on the island of Pharos and soon the building itself acquired the name. The connection of the name with the function became so strong that the word "Pharos" became the root of the word "lighthouse" in the French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian languages.

If you think this is an aerial view of city you are mistaken. It is a photograph of the inside of a Microprocessor chip used in many of today's technology devices. The first Microprocessor was born in 1950. Today's microprocessors are very advanced containing as much as ten million discrete components.