Where Is Eden?
Fire, The Wheel And Electricity...
Are inspirations that led to discoveries, then to inventions all part of the same developmental process?
FIRE…In the beginning Eden/Earth was basically unsettled. However, from Adam and Eve then Cain and Abel, what is now known as India and Africa was populated by wild animals and ‘wild’ humans, [Homo Erectus our ancestors]. Fortunately, the weather in that region of the planet was mild, so early humans could stay warm from season to season and after sunset because, CHICO’S, L.L Bean and other clothiers were about 900 hundred thousand years [or so] in the future…
However, heat wasn’t the only important factor 2 million years ago for our ancient, upright cousins - food and eating regularly was a daily quest. [I try to keep that in mind every time I must drive my modern mode of transportation to a grocery store.]
Anyway, our ancient cousins foraged in the forest with all the herbivores and if you look at our teeth, we’re still better suited to a salad than a T-bone. Through trial and error and observation we managed [most of the time] to eat roots, berries and bark that wasn’t bitter or poisonous. Then observing birds of prey scooping fish from ponds and streams as well as small animals gave inspiration no doubt for humans to expand their daily menu. However, those mastodons were an entirely new challenge on so many levels…
Technically sushi and steak tartar have been around since Adam and Eve [and that infamous fruit tree] because before fire - nothing was cooked. But lightning struck somewhere, likely several somewheres, because even though Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse weren’t born yet there’s evidence that cooking food, both vegetables and meat has been time-dated as far back as 1.9 to 1 million years ago depending on region. With control of FIRE came a string of useful adaptations, good and not so good…
THE WHEEL…Once settled and harvesting wild oats and wild wheat, our ancient Mesopotamian cousins [Iraq & bordering Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey] also began to play with mud, but not just any mud - clay. So much so that some archaeologists suspect the increasing use of pottery may have contributed to the invention of the wheel. Hand spinning wet clay to make bowls led to the potter’s stone, which wasn’t particularly round, but it sped up the work required to make leakproof containers that held precious fluids like water and beer.
From there we can [at least I can] speculate that some curious person - relaxing by their fire - was pondering how to get those heavy loads of clay for more pots from steep hillsides to home. Perhaps while pondering—this unknown person watched a smooth round rock roll down a hill then connecting the spinning stone with the rolling rock that person managed to fashion a frame of tree branches that held a giant basket attached to a large round rock to roll more clay… Wow!
Now…we all know it was another few thousand years before the full potential of the WHEEL [Industrial Revolution in 18th Century] was realized, and then voila! After that - all of Eden/Earth benefited from early pondering…However, even the simple wheel has been misused.
ELECTRICITY…More thunderstorms with more lightening eventually led to human control of another natural phenomena - the electrical charge. Though people were curious and terrified the history of electricity dates back to ancient times. And because ancient people had no idea how to deal with an energy, they could not explain nor use they assigned Zeus to manage storms. But Eden/Earth offered another clue source for electricity - a unique fish. Ancient Egyptian’s were well aware of shocks from natures electrically charged eels that gave them a nasty jolt, and stunned prey the eels could eat. Egyptian records dating from 2750 BCE described these fish as “Thunder”.
Humans living in 21stCentury Eden/Earth have managed to merge fire, electricity and the wheel for personal, for home, for business, for transportation and for military…Aren’t we clever. Now if we—the ancestors of ancient ‘wild’ humans could only stop using each of these 3 key elements that improved lifestyle-progress and use them only for improving social-progress…If only…How clever are we really?