User:Addemf/sandbox

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My Own Weird Stuff
I'm interested in math, philosophy, science, history, and a few other things. I'm especially interested in reasoning well, and how good reasoners make humanity better. The project below will probably seem like a bizarre mania of someone who can't stay focused on one subject, and it probably is. Read this only in order to ridicule me for having written it.

Prehistory
The earliest use of tools in the hominin lineage that we have evidence for was found in autralopithecines. They made handaxes, which were just stones chipped against other stones so as to give them a sharp edge. The early uses of handaxes, that experts seem to think are most plausible are


 * Carving hard-to-get meat from around the bones of carcasses.
 * Smashing bones to get marrow.
 * Possibly but not probably a weapon or wood chopping tool.

The earliest ones were probably fashioned on-the-spot as need (at least this seems like the most reasonable hypothesis) but later evidence shows that they were manufactured and carried in anticipation of their use. This is a noteworthy early sign of long-term planning. The manufacture of these items, not for immediate use, is often termed an "industry" like the most famous Oldowan industry.

As the manufacture and trade of handaxes became more common, the design of the blades became refined. The blade area was extended all the way around a curved, symmetrical edge, rather than just on one side. Early handaxes were formed entirely by percussion--later handaxes accomplished a sharper edge by using pressure flaking.

The design of hand axes eventually became so refined that the added detail and symmetry given to them, no longer served a discernible purpose. It is speculated by some, that this is an early sign of a primitive artistic sense. Even more loose speculation causes some researches to think that our geometrical mental abilities come from the need for making these handaxes. The ability to envision the blade inside the stone before chipping away, may require the sorts of geometrical imagination that we have.