Since the very dawn of humanity, the sudden appearance of new technologies has had profound — yet not immediately obvious — social consequences. As the way we live changes, so do we. Sometimes, profoundly so.

For example, the brains of Homo sapiens everywhere on Earth are smaller now than they were 300,000 years ago. One of several competing explanations of this phenomenon is the theory that the emergence of language and the distribution of knowledge across society reduced the complexity of problems that required solving by individuals. In essence, the first human technologies — culture and language — massively reduced the cognitive burden on individuals. Instead, it was externalized — onto stories, traditions, religions, and crafts. We now have smaller brains than our very earliest ancestors, yet we know much more than they could have ever dreamed of knowing.

Consider another example: the use of pointy sticks, particularly projectiles, in early human societies. This simple technological advancement helped our ancestors hunt large ungulates like mammoths but also may have played a crucial role in fostering a more egalitarian society by diminishing the power of physically dominant males. For famed primatologist Christopher Boehm, this sudden redistribution of the potential for violence explains the decline in the sorts of reactive aggression we see among the other great apes. Pointy sticks reorganized power between humans — the technology fostered an evolved culture of political egalitarianism that strongly distinguishes hominids from the ultraviolent chimpanzee, our closest cousin.