Thousands of years ago man walked the planet scratching out a living from the land. Survival was not just a popular TV show; it was everything. Man was technologically challenged by today’s standards. Only the strongest survived, which is an adage still true today, especially on Wall Street. Man learned and developed technology to make his life easier. Fire probably played a big role is making life better for early man. I believe when fire was discovered and harnessed by early man, many said it was only a fad and would never have an impact on people’s lives. The naysayers said it was a cheap gimmick and they would not be caught dead with such a dangerous evil thing like fire. Today the naysayers are still alive and well in Washington D.C.
Man usually reacts to new ideas in the same way. It would be my guess the common wisdom of the day for early man was; fire is evil, hard to prove, but a normal human reaction to the unknown concept of fire.
When electricity was discovered and harnessed for the first time the common wisdom of the day reflected human nature at its best, no one could see any use for electricity. Very similar to the reaction of IBM and AT&T when asked to help network computers together in the late 1960’s they could see no reason to have a computer network. The starting date of the Internet is usually considered January of 1983, but had IBM taken up the cause in the 1960’s they could have invented the internet instead of Al Gore.
Man has always feared the unknown, only with knowledge and understanding comes acceptance. The early men who used fire as a tool were way ahead of the others; they were the early adaptors to this new technology.
The Kitchen Table Anthropologist
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