Re: Civilization without fire

At 21:28 -0500 28.12.1999, Padraic Brown wrote:
>>
>>I'M NOT SAYING IT IS!!!  I never once said that civilization was
>>impossible without fire.  Why am I constantly being misinterpreted that
>>way?
>
>Probably because "modern" civilisation and technology are so
>intertwined; plus you probably chose some wording in some post poorly.
>[I have only paid occasional attention to this thread, but it seems
>you've been misinterpreted several times?] Perhaps we tend to find
>civilisation improbable without some kind of familliar technology.
>And much of our technology (more than 90% of it, I'ld say) is based
>ultimately on the use of fire.
>
>Perhaps in stead of saying
>
>*Language and higher intelligence, definitely, without a doubt.  But,
>*I can't imagine how technology, beyond stone tools, would be
>*possible.
>
>you should have covered yourself by saying "Language and high
>intelligence definitely; some kind of civilisation is also possible,
>but Civilisation As We Know It (TM), which is metal and fire based,
>almost certainly not likely."
My point was that we are conditioned by our metallurgy-based civilization
to make that false equation, and I honestly did think Nik made it, when he
said:

>Well, that's pretty broad, but I suppose you could say that any
>non-instinctive use of something beyond the animal's natural abilities
>is technology.  Then in that case, a very low level of technology is
>possible without fire.
IMO stone age technology way up to Inca level would have been perfectly
possible without fire.  The food may not have been very tasty, but the only
thing for which fire is absolutely required in a temperate climate is
metallurgy.

As for intelligent fish, I have been thinking, and come to the conclusion
that their language would probably be electric-field-modulation based! :-)


/BP

 B.Philip Jonsson  <bpj@...> <melroch@...>
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