Intelligence and the prehensible thumb: the ultimate duo

Intelligence, few organisims have this powerful tool - the dolphins have it, and so do the great apes. But it is most evident in the organisim called Man, through this gift we have evolved socially from almost mere animals to the dominant species on the planet, to unleashing one of the most powerful forces in the universe 'the atom'. It is not through sheer intelligence though that we have come this far though. We owe a great deal to our thumbs, an apeandage that we take for granted so often.

It is because of our thumbs that we in our early years could construct tools, hunt very effectively, and build shelter from the elements. Our superb tool usage reached a new level roughly 10,000 years ago when agriculture was developed. From there things exploded, with agriculture for the first time in human history there was a surplus of food. Man could actually settle down in a single place and not "follow the herd". With this extra time away from gathering food man had idle time to 'think'. The Ionians part of ancient greek are accredited with first developing the 'scientific method', a method that is still used to this day. With this realatively new occurance of civilization history was for the first time taken down, the oldest of these are Babylonian text slabs. With these new found ideas man started to question his own existence, Greek and Egyptian mythology are some of the most renoun for their many gods and goddess.

Creating and spreading these grand new ideas was not all that man did in these early times. War is perhaps the nastiest bastard child of intelligence. Ever since almost the very dawn of civilization man has been at war with himself. Even with man's great intelligence we are still a young immature species. A child learns from its mistakes by experience, usually only once gets the message across clearly but mankind as a whole has been trying to learn from its mistakes a hundred times over. Conflict is still an issue due to very trivial things such as skin pigmentation, manner of dress, and the biggest one of all theological differences. These prejudices in early history may have given tribes a survival advantage, but in todays society they are extremely burdensome. Through history thelogical disputes have caused the greatest travesties and horror to man, The Inquisition, The Holocost, and all of the fighting in the middle eastern region of the world.

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Thats a small draft of my Prolouge in the book im writing.

Oh, everything is up for discussion just to give this thread a purpose.

Homo Habilis was known for it's craftmansship. We are not the first to be able to craft equipment, and it is not the reason for our dominion over Earth. Rather, it is the ability to work in organised groups and form complexer societies than possible with 'animals'.
Our societies evolved from 'ancient communism', where we just produced enough for us to consume' into other societies, where specialism was possible. In a pack of lions, there are no 5 lions in charge of the defense of the area, while 4 others get the food. Though they work in groups, they do not trust each other enough for that. They can not communicate in the ways needed for a complex society to exist, where more advanced tools can be created. The TV would never have been invented if we were all busy gathering our own food.

This may seem because of tools, but it is in fact our ability to communicate that has allowed us to craft more complex tools to allow for yet even more complex societies.

Also, dolphins, pigs and humans are not the only species with intelligence. Almost all animals on the planet are intelligent and capable of learning from their environment and adapting to it. Man's greatest asset is not intelligence, but a complex communication-system.

Conflict is purely natural. It comes out of basic instinct and needs not be supported by just the factors you listed. Sure, it is possible, but it might just come from entering the territory of one such tribe. Just look at modern societies, even we still are very negative towards foreigners. Although theological differences may seem to be the greatest factor, it are the people who declare war, and this is rarely because their bible tells them to. On average, the religious, the contemplators are quite peaceful, and those who wrote the Torah, for example, were also peaceful. Sadly, however, leaders of nations often see it as their call to conquer more land, gain more wealth, and they than interpret the 'Bible' for their purpose, they manipulate the religious system to give a reason people are willing to fight and die for.

Mr U