The fundamental evolutionary advantage of human beings over all other species on this planet is our ability to make things. We make tools to make more complex tools to make end products that help us survive, thrive, and develop. Pre-humans may have started making simple tools over 2 1/2 millions years ago and serious complex tool-making took off during the Bronze Age just a brief 5,000 years ago.
Ever since those grand old days, humans have been exponentially improving our making abilities. Today, we're extremely good at it, and there is a growing population of amateur "Makers" who are creating a serious hobby out of playing with technology and discovering personal skills to prove that they are the ultimate in human beings right from their own garage.
Dale Dougherty, the founder and publisher of MAKE: Magazine, recently presented a TED Talk on the growing presence of makers across the country. They tinker in their garages, at Maker Faires, and at hackerspaces, and Dale wants to convinces us all that each one of us is a maker at heart. He must be right -- we are human beings, after all -- we just need to tap into that core evolutionary skill and start making.
Watch Dale Dougherty's TED Talk from the Motor City.
Despite the claims made, very few people have the knowledge or skill to produce much of anything that we use in our society today. Therefore it isn't based on human knowledge, but rather on our unique social division of labor which has given rise to the technology we exploit today. In other words, the complexity isn't any result of humans becoming smarter as much as it is the result of humans becoming more individually specialized. Consequently we have the unique situation of having advanced technologies that no one completely understands and no one can replicate by themselves.
They're simply demonstrating even higher degrees of specialization. It is no coincidence that despite all of our scientific progress and technology there are very few people that could survive as our prehistoric ancestors did because we lack the knowledge and skills for it. Certainly some may argue, that they don't care to live that way, but it isn't a question of convenience or luxury, it's a question of ability and we simply don't possess it anymore.