On Tools
Some tools are simple and obvious: hammers, shelter, knives, clothing.
Some tools are complex: math, money, machines, computers.
Some tools are God-sent: fire, the wheel, water, REM sleep.
Some tools came with the “being human” package: language, dexterous fingers, vivid color sightedness.
But the most influential tools the tools that shape who we really are, are of another kind altogether….
These tools don’t have clear boundaries and aren’t able to be defined just as an object or subject and its intended purpose, because we the user decide or mutate their boundaries as we go along using them: friends, family, beliefs, rationalizations, drugs, anger, love.
These tools are all of a kind which move our minds - ideally to a desired state – to get us through the day, to get us through life. We humans are the first to be able to handle them and, as tools are defined, use them.
Now it’s important to mention here that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! We are humans. Our decidedly distinguished advantage is that we can create, use, and share tools… Everything we interact with in life is shaped into a tool for us in one way or another and there’s nothing we can do to change that. You are a monkey if you don’t.
In fact, even monkeys use tools! I actually think one of Life’s main purposes is to better use tools and that we humans are simply the best that’s been seen, so far. Maybe we’re just tools for Life after all… Whether that’s true or not, the fact remains that we advanced tool users can do quite a bit with the tools we have.
So let’s talk about what is true for tools.
Tool Choice
Availability
We are obviously limited to only the tools we can reach and grab – the things closest to you. If you extend your reach or increase the quantity of the things around you, the more tools you will have available.
Most times this availability is a curse. You become the cliche “To the man with a hammer, everything is a nail”. This is why it’s so important to expand the tools closest to you. They define your limitations. They define your potential. They define your versatility.
Versatility (or Using a Spoon to Spread Butter)
The less precision needed for a task – or the less the effect precision has on the task – the more options available of satisfactory approximating the solution to that task.
In other words, instead of a knife, you can use a spoon to spread butter on your bread without there being any real consequences. However, try using a spoon for cardiothoracic surgery and you’ll be met with a different mannered customer.
There’s nothing wrong with spoons. Sometimes all we have is a spoon. But if you only think life will require you to need a spoon, then don’t ever expect to eat pasta. Sometimes you need to go and buy the whole kitchen set.
Extension & Reliability
Everyone knows the adage about how civilization advances by extending the number of things we can do without having to think about the doing. Tools are the vehicle for this extension.
If you know you’ll very frequently need to travel long distances, having a car and a phone with GPS always close by allows you not to worry about how you’re going to get there. It allows you to focus on the destination; to not think.
This is Extension. By stacking destinations instead of trips, you cook with gas instead of kindling. You get the most out of yourself. Extension also means that tools can transform our limited human-bounded input into other domains, allowing us to manipulate things usually out of our existential reach.
And Extension only works if the tools around you can reliably do what they should. This is why we humans prefer what we know. Those tools we’ve used which have worked for us in the past. New tools are often scary mostly because we’ve never tried to use them before.
New Tools & Invention
Creating a new tool or using a tool to invent something new all together is truly the pinnacle of human accomplishment. The best tools get passed down through so many generations it’s as if they’ve always been there. Their origins are so intertwined with human history that whole conspiracy theories get written about how they may have gotten here.
The best tools change the environment around us so well that it has no choice but to submit to our will. Now this may seem like hyperbole, but remember that lifeforms co-evolve with their environment. So to permanently change our environment is to in fact copilot evolution with Life itself.
Final Thoughts
This is as far as I can take the importance of tools for now. If using God’s paintbrush isn’t enough for you, then by all means continue to ignore the tools around you. Continue to act powerless when challenging situations arise and you can’t meet them. Tools are the only tools you have. Choose wisely.