The

were steering at a paradox.

There was a stone tool chipped away to form a sharp edge with all the characteristic marks

of something handmade.

It was, in fact, a perfect example of an early stone hand tool.

And yet, the well, there was a problem.

You see, the scientists who uncovered this tool in Kenya back in early 2015 believe that it

was created 3.3 million years ago, which is about 500,000 years further back in the evolutionary

scale than the earliest humans known to date.

We don't know who they were, but we know this.

Like us, they use tools.

Clearly technology has always been intoxicating to us.

However far back in time we go, tools for hunting and food prep later gave way to instruments

of war and writing, complex machines powered by gears or steam or electricity.

It's our heritage and it's evidence of a deep passion for making things.

It's actually a great way to view human behavior when you think about it.

If a tool was created, it usually points to a major interest or passion from that era.

Inventions are, in a sense, a cultural fingerprint.

Study the history of firearms and you'll see the transformation of ballistics and chemistry

into military hardware.

But it's also a revealing glimpse into the violence of human nature.

The history of navigational science is also the history of our passion for exploration.

...