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History of Technology 2: Walking 35 Views


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Description:

Back in our day, we had to walk all the way across the continent uphill in the snow, both ways.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Okay, time to zoom in on humankind's first big technological

00:08

innovation. Drumroll please! Walking, seriously walking? All right fine, walking [Caveman walks in and modern human is driving a Segway]

00:15

woohoo. Well this thrilling lesson is the story of how people move before they had

00:20

any help no wheels no horses not even a cheap Kmart bike that falls apart in two [Caveman in a cart, the horse and wheels vanish and it falls to the ground]

00:25

minutes. Even without the benefit of any transportation technology good old human

00:29

beings still managed to get around we settled every habitable part of the

00:33

planet from the Tropics to the far North so how did Stone Age humans cover

00:38

thousands of miles and settle the entire planet with nary a pair of sneakers? Well [Cities appearing all over a map of the world]

00:44

they just kind of had to, it was basically walk or die. Remember early

00:48

hunter-gatherers didn't get to hang around in their boxers and microwave

00:52

mammoth for lunch. They were constantly on the move these days human beings

00:57

mostly avoid walking, seriously if it's farther than a city block we call Uber. [Boy sat on a couch on his phone]

01:01

But at the beginning of human history walking was literally the only way to

01:05

get anywhere animals weren't domesticated yet, wheels hadn't been

01:08

invented, but early humans were hunters and gatherers which meant that they

01:12

couldn't just hang out and wait for their wheat to grow or hogwarts acceptance letter

01:17

to show up. They had to go out and find their food or else risk a growling

01:21

stomach and ya know, what's that called? Oh yeah dying. In East Africa where our [Caveman''s stomach grumbles and he falls over]

01:26

species began, people had to go a long long way to find their food. There's a whole

01:31

theory about Stone Age hunting called the endurance running hypothesis and it

01:36

basically says that our ancient ancestors would have put us to shame on

01:39

the elliptical. Anthropologists and archaeologists both believe that early

01:44

humans hunted their prey by literally running it to death over a few dozen [Caveman chasing after animal]

01:49

miles so let's imagine we're happy little cave people, we see a hamburger on

01:54

legs in the distance like a gazelle or an antelope. We don't have any projectile

01:59

weapons.. yet, and the Gazelle is way faster than us in a sprint so what's our

02:05

advantage? We sweat. Oh yeah it's a gross advantage but it's a big advantage.

02:11

Human beings are really good at getting rid of excess

02:13

heat so we can run for long distances without overheating and erm, dying. Those [Man on a treadmill sweating]

02:19

other animals can't say the same. Pit stains, humanity's great evolutionary hope.

02:24

But there was a whole task force of cave people working on primitive deodorant. [Scientist spraying deodorant on caveman]

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