The progress, the man and the invention

The progressive control of the environment

The humanity is destined to reach its perfection.

If all the animal species have the "mechanical" faculty to adapt their organism to their environment, only the man (thanks to his creative capacities and his numerous tools) can adapt himself to the whole of environments.

By imitating the nature, our capacities for inventing permit us to acclimatize the humanity to the whole environments. So, we control better and better the elements: marine, air and Earth’s.

We now know how to copy almost the whole strategies which uses the nature to adapt the species to any kind of environment.

As bats or whales, we use the echo to distinguish objects at night. As the octopus or the lizard we use suction pads to climb smooth walls, etc...

The uniqueness of the man results from his particular biological adaptation to the environment, which permitted him to acquire the biped standing position, then a functional development of the brain, single process in the world of the living. His biological evolution followed at first the same rhythm as his cultural evolution: his biorhythm, which is about a million years, was punctuated by the paleontology stages of the humanity (sivapithec, pre-Australopithecus, and homo) and up to the current stage, sapiens, approximately 100 000 years ago. ) His cultural rhythm was, in the beginning, in sync with its biorhythm; it was marked by the emergence of the first tools between 3 and 4 million years, first flints cut at about 700 000 years, by the discovery of the fire at about 400 000 years, by the first funeral rites and the manufacturing of the first colored pigments approximately 50 000 years ago. Then his cultural evolution accelerated after the last glaciations; but this acceleration was not accompanied with a change of the human biological constitution, and in particular with its brain: the level of the intelligence did not rise, it is the sum of the accumulated knowledge that increased. By Robert Bouchez and Claire Laurent in Histoire des Moeurs – La Pléiade
We think that it is a great analysis of the evolution (even if we do not totally agree with the conclusion according to which this acceleration was not accompanied with a change of the human biological constitution)… We think that millenniums ease the customs; the appearance, the persistence and the permanent transmission of the main human values are influent on the human brain constitution. The continuous humanization modifies little by little our brain, turns it always more talented for empathy, for the love of others and for the happiness.

The man, forced to invent

This mechanism, which leads the humanity towards always more adaptation, comfort, knowledge, sensibility and universality, we owe it to the progressive emergence of new intellectual capacities. These offer us new technical means to evolve.

Thanks to the easy mobility of the people on the planet, to their curiosity of others, to their taste for the exchanges (and regrettably, thanks to the conflicts and to the wars); our specie developed a powerful inter-community correlation.

This obligation to exchange (to which is added a real pleasure to innovate) transforms the humanity into a creation machine, an invention machine, a machine for development: thus, a machine for progress.

Imaginary, communication, memory and morality

This creative power, we owe it first of all to the power of our imagination, to our capacities to elaborate tools, techniques and new objects.

We also owe it to the development of transport and communications (language, travels, etc.). These relational capacities permitted us to develop new forms of mutual aid inter-group. Sociable, interdependent and nomad, the man was able to propagate his knowledge and his inventions out of his group.

We also owe it to our memory and to writing. These two extraordinary capacities permitted us to accumulate and to protect the knowledge acquired by the man in the course of time (and avoid so any regression).

And we owe it finally to the acquisition of the morality and the critical spirit. These two values permit to direct the human actions in the way of good for humanity (the evil being there to allow the good to assert itself).

The man, the tool and the invention

Among the living species, only our specie uses reason and sophisticated tools to adapt itself as good as possible to its whole environment.

By observing in a global way the evolution of the living, the tool does not appear as a total break. It extends artificially a natural principle and continues a mechanism already undertaken by primates (for instance, these last uses staffs to impress their adversaries or to catch white ants).

The development of the tool allowed us to break with our previous status of prey (almost the whole other species are not a threat any more for the man).

Progress also gave us a certain independence regarding to the natural elements.

1/ An independence of movement (the man can now evolve under any weather)
2/ A food independence (we have means to produce, to store, to conserve and to distribute enough food to feed the whole humanity)
3/ An independence in traveling (no more area in the world is inaccessible for the man)

By diversifying, the tool engendered the technology and then, this one boosted the progress.

When we observe the whole evolution of the technologies (between the first people and us), their positive contribution seems indisputable.
In spite of the resulting problems (even still today), the progress made us free from a large part of constraints involved by the nature (even if today the challenge is to free us from constraints inherent to the technology itself).

Globally, from century to century, and in comparable density, the situation of the human specie better (and get better still constantly).

The life of the contemporaneous man is more enviable than that of the man of the 19th century. That of the 19th is more comfortable than that of the 18th, the customs of the Middle ages are globally more flexible than those of the antiquity, those of the antiquity less strict than those of the Prehistory, etc....

The man and the ethical progress

On the way to a conscious evolution

During every period of the human evolution, the men have the mission to discover things, to resolve obstacles, to surpass dangers.

Until today, our specie succeeded in each of these missions.

Our specie learnt how to control the language, the fire, the bronze, the writing, the energy, the technique…

We survived to epidemics and discovered means to fight them.

In spite of the violence and the war, our specie populated the whole earth.

Far from being a handicap, the cultural diversity, the plurality of the consciousnesses and the variety of ways of life, enlarge the common field of knowledge.

The previous millenniums built the basis of culture, spirituality and life in society. The last centuries have been dedicated to the creation and to the development of progress and technology. The last decades showed the first steps of the globalization. Now, new challenges are incumbent upon the current and next generations.

We have to deal with problems like inter community harmony, pacification of the planet, clean energy, sharing of the wealth, consumption, global social development, North-south relations, international governance, international crime, mutual aid with the fragile states etc.

For that, the human dominant have to succeed in transcend their spirit of community and their taste for the clannishness. They have to learn to work together, in a universal way and for the good of the quite whole humanity. The Philosophy, the psychology, the sociology, the political science have to help them with these tasks.

In this sense, the humanity shall previously free the forces of opposition: media, justice, thinkers. This whole critical and juridical potential will bring the respect of the justice, the morals and the human ethics to these dominant’s consciences.

In conclusion, if the progress and the technological development continue (and there is no reason to see this evolution impeded), if they succeed in resolving their incoherencies and their waste, they should be able to adapt perfectly the humanity to the world. They are able to reduce to none the risks inherent in the nature and to offer an absolute comfort to the human being.

So, one question should appear : the question to know what is really this absolute comfort and in which purpose our specie wants to reach it.



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