The idea to create something new came with the advent of tools, but how could tools have come into being in the first place.
Even in the most primitive of societies, activities like handling an axe, shooting arrows or ploughing the agricultural fields would be impossible to fathom without this trait, a development that was originally useful for climbing trees but ended up being really important when early humans started to make tools and for that very reason in our evolution as human kind.
It was with these tools and our deepened understanding of material that we moved to the next step in our evolution, we became settlers and thus, gave birth to the age of agriculture, instead of hunting and gathering, we started fencing our homes, we dug irrigation canals to water the agricultural fields, we developed more complex tools to grow and cultivate plants and then to cook them, we built vessels and containers to store that food, casted swords and arrowheads to fight, to protect and see who is the strongest…
The ingenuity in us, the power to create the new to capture the imagination and move beyond is what makes us human- insignificant on a universal scale but powerful in our journey “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”.
The bigger question that I eventually want to reach at is that,”Is there a single way to reach to an Intelligent Life, the way we did, or if there is an extraterrestrial life out there that evolved to be this intelligent taking a different pathway, well thats all upto a speculation because we possibly can’t know this in our lifetime ?!”
The new James Webb Telescope has been out in space for couple of weeks now and if everything goes well, we will be able to see and know far beyond unlike its predecessors. We wait !!
toCreatedCreate
It all started with evolution’s gift to the humankindthe opposable thumb. The most influential component in the advancement of mankind. It made humans surpass the apes on the societal scale. Not convinced? Try immobilizing your thumbs for twenty minutes (just twenty minutes). Go about doing your daily activities (writing, preparing food, scrolling your mobile phones, driving, etc.) thumb-less, for those twenty, long, agonizing minutes, you will ask yourself, “Where would humankind be today without fully mobile thumbs?”
One would ask, if we never had an opposable thumb, the world around us would have been designed differently, I would say, however, that one would not even be at a stage where this question would be common thought. We would not know the world as it is without the advent of the trait. The opposable thumb has historically made all the difference.
Drawing from this we could also ask why other primates did not develop this feature like we, sapiens did especially since they also climb trees and have similar cranial capacities. This is one question I have pondered on for a while and on researching I found that “the other Hominidae don’t have three muscles, namely Flexor pollicis brevis(deep head), 1st volar interosseous of Henle and Flexor pollicis longus and these muscles have proved to be the reasons for this evolution.”
Furthermore, the cognitive revolution began with the thought of a Homo Sapien asking himself, “how can I shape the world around me”, “what do I do to mould it in the way I want to?” and it is with these thoughts that the development of the very basic tools and weapons that initially sustained human life came into being. These early tools were most likely used to help humans butcher animals (not always ones hunted but also likely scavenged), cut up plants, and even for basic woodwork. It is likely that a whole range of different materials spanning from animal hide to tree barks were used to create storage items; wood was used to create digging sticks, spears or clubs; and other digging tools were made out of horn or bones; all of these worked as an essential survival tool kit in the savannas of Africa. Primitive societies also used simple methods to turn materials such as volcanic lava, quartz, and quartzite into tools using “hard hammer percussion and bipolar technique”.
endows us with unparalleled precision and versatility in our interactions with objects, from mundane activities such as grasping to extraordinary ones such as virtuoso pianism. The complex anatomy of the human hand combined with expansive and specialized neuronal control circuits allows a wide range of precise manual behaviours. To support these behaviours, an exquisite sensory apparatus, spanning the modalities of touch and proprioception, conveys detailed and timely information about our interactions with objects and about the objects themselves. The study of manual dexterity provides a unique lens into the sensorimotor mechanisms that endow the nervous system with the ability to flexibly generate complex behaviour.
Anton R. Sobinov and Sliman J. Bensmaia
The neural mechanisms of manual dexterity
TheAbstracthand
1.
Palmaris longus lies outside the carpal tunnel and is absent in many people. Each muscle path is complex, especially around the wrist and thumb, wrapping around other moving muscles and bones, so estimating the action of these muscles is difficult. Some hand muscles and other tissues are omitted for clarity. In addition, the extensor sheath is omitted on the dorsal view of digit 4 and the connective tissue is omitted on the palmar view of digit 2 to reveal the underlying tendon paths. Image courtesy of Kenzie Green.
Fig. 01 (Above) | Hand musculature. Digits 2–5 are articulated mainly by two flexors — note how the deep one (blue) threads through the superficial one (green) at the proximal phalanx — and one extensor, which feeds into the extensor sheath. Intrinsic hand muscles also feed into the sheath, flexing the proximal finger joint and extending the other. Extensor indicis and extensor digiti minimi contribute further independence to index finger and little finger extension. Flexor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis are two thumb muscles that are found only in humans and two other primate species.
Fig. 02 (On the left) | A folio from Leonardos Anatomical Manuscript A.Recto: five studies of right hands, showing bones and muscles; six smaller drawings of digits; notes on the drawings.These magnificent drawings are among the high points of Leonardo’s career as an anatomist. They demonstrate with complete clarity the mechanical structure of the hand, not stripping it down as in a dissection but building it up in the manner of an engineer, and following in part the list of depictions given on the verso of the
sheet....Fig.
03 (Above) | The handle of this adze is inscribed “The Good God, Maatkare, beloved of Amun, foremost of DjeserDjeseru.” Maatkare was the throne name of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, and Djeser-Djeseru (Holy of Holies) was the name of her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The adze was uncovered in one of the temple’s foundation deposits by the Museum’s Egyptian Expedition. Although the adze is full-size and appears to be functional, the blade is too thin to be used for cutting and, like most of the tools discovered in foundation deposits, this is a model.
Fig. 04 (On the left) | Hammer of a Janissary; 17th century; Turkish; Medium: Steel, iron, wood, silver
Fig. 06 | This battle axe was found inside the coffin of a man named Baki, whose formal name was Bak-Amun. He was buried in the family tomb of Noferkhawt, who was probably his father or his father-in-law. The handle has been partially restored with modern wood. The rawhide lashing is modern, based on ancient examples.
Fig. 05 | In 1908-1914, Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon excavated in a section of the Theban necropolis known as lower Asasif. This area contained a Middle Kingdom tomb with a huge courtyard that was reused as a cemetery for about a century between late Dynasty 17 and the early joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III in Dynasty 18 (ca. 1575-1475 B.C.). Carter and Carnarvon excavated half of the cemetery before moving on the Valley of the Kings. In 1915-1916, the Museum’s Egyptian Expedition excavated the other half. The objects displayed in gallery 114 come from both of these excavations.
Fig. 07 (Below) | Decorated with engraved natural motifs, including fruit and fish, precious tools such as these were meant for noble patrons for whom gardening had gradually become a suitable pastime. The set, comprising clippers, a saw, four knives, and a combination hammerrasp-file-and-auger, would have been used for trimming branches and obtaining bud grafts.
Fig. 08 (On the Right) | The term pipa has been known since the 3rd century B.C. It originally described the playing motion of the right hand: p’i, “to play forward” (left), and p’a, “to play backward” (right). In addition to its use in the opera and in story telling ensembles, the pipa has a solo repertoire of highly programmatic, virtuosic music.
Fig. 09 | For an object produced during the medieval period, this astrolabe is unusually well documented. Its inscription attributes it to a Rasulid prince, ‘Umar ibn Yusuf, a few years before he ascended to the throne (r. 1295–96). ‘Umar compiled a number of scientific treatises, including one on the construction of astrolabes, an autographed version of which, preserved in Cairo, contains certifications by his teachers as to his competence as a maker of such devices and a description of this very piece.
Fig. 10 | Starrett Tools 50th Anniversary : Catalog No. 25 by L.S. Starrett Co.
Fig. 11 | Starrett Tools 50th Anniversary : Catalog No. 25 by L.S. Starrett Co.
1931.Fig.alogFig.2022.zaffari.”|Fig.um.org/art/collection/search/500625MuseumFig.www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/203954MetropolitanFig.um.org/art/collection/search/548308MuseumFig.org/art/collection/search/590954seumWhetstone,Fig.um.org/art/collection/search/30815MuseumFig.tion/search/547562Accessedsut’sFig.dons-of-the-handhttps://www.rct.uk/collection/919009/the-bones-muscles-and-tenMusclesFig.00528-7doi-org.ezproxy.universite-paris-saclay.fr/10.1038/s41583-021-https://02-“LeonardoDaVinci(Vinci1452-Amboise1519)-TheBones,andTendonsoftheHand.”n.d.AccessedJanuary7,2022.03-“Carpenter’sAdzefromaFoundationDepositforHatshepTemple|NewKingdom.”n.d.TheMetropolitanMuseumofArt.January7,2022.https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collec04-“HammerofaJanissary|Turkish.”n.d.TheMetropolitanofArt.AccessedJanuary7,2022.https://www.metmuse05-“CosmeticSetofKohlTubeandApplicator,Razor,Tweezers,andMirror|NewKingdom.”n.d.TheMetropolitanMuofArt.AccessedJanuary5,2022.https://www.metmuseum.06-“BattleAxofBaki|NewKingdom.”n.d.TheMetropolitanofArt.AccessedJanuary5,2022.https://www.metmuse07-“SetofSevenPruningTools|French,Moulins.”n.d.TheMuseumofArt.AccessedJanuary5,2022.https://08-“Jiu-Cheng|Pipa(琵)|Chinese.”n.d.TheMetropolitanofArt.AccessedJanuary8,2022.https://www.metmuse09-“‘UmarIbnYusufIbn‘UmarIbn‘AliIbnRasulal-MuzaffariAstrolabeof‘UmarIbnYusufIbn‘UmarIbn‘AliIbnRasulal-Mun.d.TheMetropolitanMuseumofArt.AccessedJanuary8,https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44440810-L.S.StarrettCo.1930.StarrettTools50thAnniversary:CatNo.25.http://archive.org/details/StarrettToolsCatalogNo2511-Hémery,Impr-gérant.1931.Jefaistout:n°117:8juillethttp://archive.org/details/je-fais-tout-n-117
1. and Fig. 01 - Sobinov, A.R., Bensmaia, S.J. The neural mechanisms of manual dexterity. Nat Rev Neurosci 22, 741–757 (2021).
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