"Homo erectus went extinct because they were lazy! Scientists claim 'least-effort strategies' for tool making and collecting resources contributed to the downfall of the primitive species". Sounds like prehistoric socialism.
Homo erectus motto: "Let George do it".
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"First thought to have evolved around 1.9 million years ago in Africa, Homo erectus was the first early hominid to become a true global traveller.
"They are known to have migrated from Africa into Eurasia, spreading as far as Georgia, Sri Lanka, China and Indonesia.
"However, the hominid ultimately went extinct around 140,000 years ago."
The first true global traveling (on foot!) species that managed to survive for around 1.76 millions went extinct because they were .... .... lazy.
Riiiiiiiggggghhhhhttttt.
Sounds like the boffins accidentally quaffed their supply of formaldehyde, instead of the bourbon, whilst out on their digs.
Survival depends on conservation of energy when you live day to day. Watch any predator, they only go full tilt when a kill is certain. I'm embarrassed because this is an Australian team from our best university too.
I've always thought laziness was the motivation behind most of the important inventions that man has come up with. Take the wheel, for instance. Just some lazy guy looking for an easier way to move stuff around, rather than on his back. And the telegraph. Sure beats having to carry a letter across country on horseback. Man has always looked for easier ways to do hard stuff because, well...it's easier.
"There's gotta be an easier way to do this!"
Laziness is a physical law, the principle of least energy. Named for Fermat, it says basically that any physical peocess will use the least energy needed to do what it is doing.
All that traveling around sure sounds lazy to me.
So basically these archeologists are saying Homo Erectus were slackers. Yet they conclude that Erectus walked over a vast area, and did more with less. Sounds lazy. Guess Erectus would have been given a better grade if they shopped for better tool making materials. Hmmm. Maybe that was what they were doing walking all over hither and yon.
Gee. Wonder what the archeologists will make of the current civilization with all its conveniences.
Homo Erectus are also known for Acheulean axes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheulean
Some of which took so much time to make, and were then discarded in a heap, that the best explanation is they attracted girls, like modern sports cars.
Actually not lazy, just had priorities.
I have a small aboriginal stone blade I found. To get a useable edge they hit it with a hammer stone maybe twice*, took all of two minutes. Could be thousands of years old, even 10k - heavy patina over the worked edges.
* They had to know where to hit. Evidence of working is conchoidal fractures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchoidal_fracture
I checked it with local archeologist.
Most technology is about being lazy.
Necessity might be the mother of invention but laziness is the father.
Necessity might be the mother of invention but laziness is the father.
Damn! Wish I had said that.
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