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On Water
On my walk I wondered, how did early humans carry water and how much water could they carry? My thoughts led me to this conclusion. The exploration of the earth, and the movement of humans spatially was always dependent on knowledge of and access to water. They lived in one world, not like us where we live in an artificial world and chose to enter what’s left of the natural world. They could never be without water for long periods of times or they would die. They could never be without the knowledge of where a water source was or they would die. The ability to know where water sources were was always a part of movement through space. Camp could never be set up too far from water. Exploration was based on the pathways of water paths and accessibility to water. We were never a truly land based species as there is not truly a separation between land and water.
About the photo of the bent tree pointing towards water: I discovered this photo reading the NYT months after I had written this piece. I thought it nicely illustrated what I was thinking and writing about and so have included it for your viewing pleasure.
On Fire
I thought about fire on my walk. Human disconnection from nature has lead to a human centric outlook. We forget that we are not the only tool makers, problem solvers and builders in the animal kingdom. Beavers are industrious civil engineers whose dams modify landscapes. Spiders are brilliant structural engineers working in tension in ways that are advanced by today’s building standards. Human cities pale in efficiency compared to the cities ants build. We have forgotten that we are not alone in the animal kingdom with intelligence and socialialty.
It is only our control of fire that separates humans from all other animals. No other animal however intelligent or social has ever controlled fire. Our brains developed because of fire. Living with it, using it, learning about it. Our brains development, our social connections and intelligence, our way of seeing, our story telling, our understanding of the world all come from fire.
I used to think control of fire was something that was done with great care. The members of camp collectively knew the importance of maintaining and keeping the fire going. When humans moved camps fire was carried around as if it were precious in a canister or vessel with care not to be extinguished. Fire kept us warm. We cooked with fire and it helped nourish us. Fire protected us, we could use it to defend ourselves, we could use it to hunt. We could use it to change the world.
On the walk I started to think of fire differently. That humans were absolutely wild with it when our species was young. Think of a monster truck rally today. The most insane truck is driven in the most insane way by insane people for no other reason to see what would happen and burn gasoline. I started thinking of our behavior around fire as our behavior at monster truck rallies.
I started thinking of fire as a technology. I started thinking of fire as a weapon. The two are not separate. Those who had the technology of fire would always prevail in any conflict with those who didn't. I thought of fire going from a burning branch that could be thrown, to a burning arrow that could extend the throw of an arm. Then to a musket where the gunpowder was the fire and the barrel handle and trigger an extension of the technology of fire.
In my head on my walk I understood fire from a burning branch that our ancestors wielded in ways that reflected their wild and untamed spirts to the atomic bomb, the ultimate fire. The ultimate weapon. Jets, rockets, nuclear power plants the ultimate fire technology. As we explored the world we would use it, wildly. To create fires as big as we could just to see what would happen.
Perhaps our ancestors like us had a profound sense of home and were trying to change the world, to make it in an image of their original home, the Savannah. Burning as they went to create clearings that reminded them of home.
Fire was used as weapon to kill.
Fire was used as a weapon to hunt.
Fire was was used to change the world in our own image.
The world was big and it didn’t matter how much of it we set on fire and burned.
The forest was endless and it grew back.
Who controlled fire controlled the world.
Who had the most advanced technology of fire prevailed against those who also had fire.
Fire was wild and we used it wildly.
Everything has changed in a million years.
Nothing has changed in a million years.
Man Is Burning Man.