How humans harnessed fire to transform the world | Jessica Thompson | TEDxJohannesburgSalon

[@eatislovetv2857]

One thousand percent, YES. I even go so far as to say that when fire catalyzed the advent of storytelling, that was the beginning of inter-generational wisdom - the most human of traits that has, for better or worse, enabled us to be who and where we are now. Watched your ASU lecture a few nights ago and am currently embarking on a rabbit-hole. Outstanding content!

[@azurebapiaries6730]

A great talk & perspective s surrounding our ancestry! Thanks Jessica

[@seanmurphy1704]

You never mentioned the aspect of light thrown off by fire , which extended the day, and it's use in caves etc for deeper exploration.

[@mickelodiansurname9578]

Jessica... move the cue cards to behind the camera... we could see you taking cues... also use images not words in the cues... and if I can tell those were words and not images then you can see it transferred to your talk... Written language I see as a bottleneck in talking to cameras... and it makes you stumble sometimes... an image reminds you better. Other than that loved it!

[@carinaekstrom1]

Yes, it was fire. Environmental challenges and social needs made us grow, an it could not have happened without fire.

[@paulroundy8060]

We have to be very selective with indigenous knowledge for concepts that actually lead to sustainable behaviors. Indigenous people radically changed their landscapes and threw them out of balance. Did they sometimes achieve balances we can learn from? Yes. Did they somehow have insights that rendered them better able to manage ecosystems than modernized humans? Probably not. e.g., Slash and burn wasn't optimized agriculture. It's what they did because they didn't know what plants actually needed to produce food over extended periods of time.

[@Sool101]

Good point. Rember a story about the correlation between pretty feathers and a bird species that went extinct. (and that is not meant as condescending) We have a vast amount of shared knowledge now so it would be great if we could carry some of that back into nature, that would be great.

[@Jesters_Thorny_Crown]

I used to think the same thing. That humans have created a disturbance in our environments, an imbalance. As if we somehow have subverted our collective nature and run contradictory to the way of nature. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to the conclusion that view point is typical of human arrogance. I’d argue that nature doesn’t make mistakes. That whatever happens, if we zoom out from human values and view points, is all a function of nature.

[@mtn1793]

Slash and burn is generally about providing rich grasslands to prey species for meat sources.

[@howardrichburg2398]

Really? What evidence is there that humans 30 thousand years ago deploydeployed fire in the method, she says? Even today, when prescribed fire is used, patchiness is usually the rule rather than the plan. It just happens

[@DerekHundik]

It looks funny when she is reading from the script

[@garyprice6504]

One of the least professional films I've seen on YT. It's like trying to match the gaze of a crosseyed person...

[@briancolwill3071]

It's very off-putting

[@PatchedRoundBall]

Where can I find all of your KZbin videos so I can how these videos should be produced?

[@phil20_20]

Brought the wolves and humans together. 😋🍖😋

[@sethjacobs5799]

There seems to be a primary driver of evolution in which suites of secondary adaptations are in support. Our imagination is our holy Grail of evolution. With our technology, we cheated evolution. While lions are perfectly suited to their environment, our ancestors were completely ill-prepared. Hominid main behavior for over 40 million years-with the halporhine brain, eye/hand connection. The development of imagination, and bi-handle-ism as our primary drivers, the rest was secondary-bi-pedalism, learning, neotony, language, social, adaptation, etc. Evolution seems to operate according to E = MC squared with a constant governing proportionally energy and mass. This would explain the expensive tissue theory, why lions perfectly suited to their environment do not grow large brains from eating meat and why we don’t sprout lethal laser beams from our eyes.