Does Progress Result from Technology?
                        By Michael Hauben

     What does progress mean to the human species? Progress is
the gradual betterment or development of mankind. Technology is a
basis for progress. We can figure out if this is correct by
looking at the very dawn of mankind some 4 or 5 million years
ago. The beginnings of a phenomena display the easiest under-
standable form. From its early form, we should be better able to
understand the influence technology has had on progress. Two sub-
stantial modern thinkers have produced works on this idea. Lewis
Henry Morgan, an amateur anthropologist, and Frederick Engels,
who in this case might be considered an amateur archeologist,
wrote "Ancient Society" and an article entitled "The Part Played
by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man" respectively.

     Both Morgan and Engels agree that Man started without any
technical prowess, and gradually developed technology through
experimentation. Engels starts his paper describing the human
ancestor as an anthropoid ape, and of the biological process that
led to a man without technology. Morgan wrote:

     The latest investigations respecting the early condition of
     the human race, are tending to the conclusion that mankind
     commenced their career at the bottom of the scale and worked
     their way up from savagery to civilization through the slow
     accumulations of experimental knowledge. (page 3)

Engels pinpoints bipedalism as the decisive transition from ape

to man. He writes:

     Climbing assigns different functions to the hands and feet,
     and when their mode of life involved locomotion on level
     ground, these apes gradually got out of the habit of using
     their hands [in walking] and adopted a more and more erect
     posture. This was the decisive step in the transition from
     ape to man. (251)

     Early primates emerged from the tree environment and entered
onto the savanna. Bipedalism was the next development. The slow
biological evolution paved the path for the much faster cultural
evolution. "Handedness" developed as man's ancestors walked on
only two feet. The least competitive food source was available by
foraging plants. Free hands were naturally better to forage with.
Naturally selected bipedalism allowed the hands freedom to
develop. Engels talks about the development:

     But the decisive step had to be taken, the hand had become
     free and could henceforth attain ever greater dexterity; the
     greater flexibility thus acquired was inherited and
     increased from generation to generation. (251)

The hand freed from climbing could evolve by natural selection to
do more successful non tree-climbing activities. So Engels had
the correct sense, but the wrong mechanism in mind.

     Once the hand was freed from walking or climbing through
evolution, more useful or varied purposes could be developed.
Engels explains:

     Thus the hand is not only the organ of labor, it is also the
     product of labor. Labor, adaption to ever new operations,
     the inheritance of muscles, ligaments, and, over longer
     periods of time, bones that had undergone special develop-
     ment and the ever renewed employment of this inherited
     finesse in new, more and more complicated operations.(252)

     What happened next is unknown, but with the hand freed to
develop, the first technology emerged. Man's earliest ancestors
(Homo habilis, or maybe even one of the australopithecine spe-
cies) were the first to make and use stone tools. Most likely
natural stones were first picked up and found to be strong and
usable to achieve a goal faster. Increasing use of stones, made
possible by the uniquely evolved hand of man, led to the advan-
tage of increasing flexibility of the hand. As stones were picked
up and used, either accidently or through experimentation, broken
or "crafted" rocks were found to be even more useful. Here stands
the beginnings of tool-making. The use of the hands in conjunc-
tion with rocks allowed the brain to develop through the experi-
mentation and use of the hand. Experience with using the hand led
to development of the brain. The experimentation with the hand
lead to the evolution of the brain. Those with biologically
developed hands had increased flexibility. These individuals had
an increased advantage via natural selection. The offspring of
these individuals had a biological advantage over those without
the increased flexibility. Engels describes tool-making as a clue
to the transition from ape to man:

     Labor begins with the making of tools. And what are the most
     ancient tools that we find - the most ancient judging by
     heirlooms of prehistoric man that have been discovered, and
     by the rawest of contemporary savages? They are hunting and
     fishing implements, the former serving at the same time as
     weapons. But hunting and fishing presuppose the transition
     from an exclusively vegetable diet to the concomitant use of
     meat, and this is another important transition from ape to
     man.(256)

     Progress of stone tool development is an important technolo-
gy to follow. The evidence of increasing intricacy and complexity
of stone tools in the archeological record leads to an interest-
ing question. Does the advancement in stone tool technology
demonstrate tool usages effect on the brain, or vice versa? The
continued experimentation pushed the degree to which man had to
expand his mind. This was a totally cultural development. New
discoveries were likely to have been shared and this allowed for
a continued communal cultural development.

     The development of tool-making is the first example of
technological development pushing our ancestors to further
develop an idea and in the process challenging the brain which
helped development. The brain did not develop by itself. Instead,
the experimentation with certain ideas and concepts led to
development. Morgan explains the importance of constant experi-
mentation to human progress:

     With the production of inventions and discoveries, and with
     the growth of institutions, the human mind necessarily grew
     and expanded; and we are led to recognize a gradual enlarge-
     ment of the brain itself, particularly of the cerebral
     portion. (Morgan 37)

The question that is not taken up is how natural selection works
in respect to the brain. In addition the influence of the devel-
opment of the hand to the brain has not been successful under-
stood. However, this is an important question.

     This "playfulness" was necessary in order for continued
development to happen. Today the human species constantly is at
work pushing the technological envelope never being satisfied.
This is a good direction, because this also pushes the continued
development of the intellect. The continued development of the
mental processes helps improve the standard of society. This is
what is meant by progress. There is no finished "plateau" of
total achievement.

     The earliest development was the slowest, because it was
relatively the greatest. Morgan writes:

     The slowness of this mental growth was inevitable, in the
     period of savagery, from the extreme difficultly of compass-
     ing the simplest invention out of nothing, or with next to
     nothing to assist mental effort; and of discovering any
     substance or force in nature available in such a rude condi-
     tion of life.  (Morgan 37)

     Development was not always progressively increasing. There
were periods of stagnation. Morgan explains how development was
held back. The next step could be elusive. The development of
domestication of animals and later of the smelting of iron ore
were crucial steps. Morgan explains:

     The most advanced portion of the human race were halted, so
     to express it, at certain stages of progress, until some
     great invention or discovery, such as the domestication of
     animals, or the smelting of iron ore, gave a new and power-
     ful impulse forward. (pg 39)

     Man's developments that differentiated him from other
animals are numerous. Man gradually added different foods to his
diet. The development of tools to forage led to the development
of tools to scavenge. As man added scavenged meat to his diet, it
was seen that there was plenty more live meat about. This live
game needed to be killed before being edible. The further devel-
opment of tools made this possible. Constant development of
technology allowed man to further define his environment. Engels
describes this process:

     Just as man learned to consume everything edible, he also
     learned to live in any climate. He spread over the whole of
     habitable world, being the only animal fully able to do so
     of its own accord. (258)

     Fire was probably the next invention of great importance.
Fire made control over environment possible. Fire provided warmth
for colder regions, and made subsistence easier. Engels elabo-
rates on the second of these points: "[Fire] still further short-
ened the digestive process, as it provided the mouth with food
already, as it were, half digested" (257)

     Man is a part of nature, but learned how to deal with
nature. Man learned how to control nature for his advantage. This
represents the ultimate difference from other animals. Engels
first tells how man is part of nature: "In nature nothing takes
place in isolation. Everything affects and is affected by every
other thing." (259) Man's ability over nature is his next point.

Engels writes:

     In short, the animal merely uses its environment, and brings
     about changes in it simply by his presence; man by his
     changes makes it serve his ends, masters it. This is the
     final, essential difference between man and other animals,
     and once again it is labor that brings about the distinc-
     tion. (260)

     Two patterns of thought disagree with technological prog-
ress. Religion and creationism holds that man was given superior-
ity by living in paradise in the Garden of Eden. After the
original sin, man was kicked out and made to start over again.
Not very helpful when man in fact started out with nothing.
Constant experimentation led to technological and intellectual
development and the constant progress of the human species. The
other pattern is from an environmentalist point of view. Human
use of technology is said to destroy the environment, when in
fact technology is the main reason we are not still in a
primitive stage.

     Progress in man's beginnings meant gaining control of the
environment in order to be able to make the decisions that would
help with survival. This was made possible through the develop-
ment of technology of man. Biological evolution produced bipedal-
ism, which provided our early ancestors with an advantage and
thus set the platform for further developments. First stone tool
use, then stone tool production helped to encourage intellectual
development of the species. Next came better control over subsis-
tence. Fire helped, but animal domestication and agriculture
allowed for steady flow of food for a set rate of work. Presum-
ably at some point in the various stages spoken language devel-
oped. Speech meant man was able to communicate and make decisions
as a group. Now, control was stabilized and gave room for written
language.

     Written language made future development much easier. What
was developed could not be yet recorded for posterity and commu-
nicated in all its detail to future generations until there was
written language. Morgan says with this development civilization
commences. Written language was the foundation for most of modern
advances. We are at this point in the world development through
the driving force of technology. New tools and inventions have
led to a progressively better developed ability to provide the
needed sustenance and livelihood to the human species. Those who
deny the role played by inventions and discoveries in the pro-
gressive evolution of the human species deny the long evolution
of advancement from prehistory to the modern era.

                          BIBLIOGRAPHY

Morgan, Lewis Henry.  Ancient Society.  New York: 1877, Henry
     Holt and Company.

Engels, Frederick.  "The Part Played by Labour in the Transition
     from Ape to Man," in The Origin of the Family, Private
     Property, and the State.  N.Y.: 1975. International Publish- 
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Dec 1992