The Birth of Human Intelligence

The use of tools, which we imagine is quintessentially human, isn't unique to us either. Chimpanzees use sticks to draw termites from their mounds by the fistful and rocks to bash open hard-shelled nuts to get to the meat inside. But at some point, we drew away from the rest of life, in the development of our intelligence. We became the first animals to use tools to make other tools. This is the birth of technology. It may simply be the expected outcome of those organizing principles of life. There are two options before us then. Either we humans are unique in our universe and utterly alone, or we are not. If the great filter