Contemporary Design Discourse

Assignment 2

Speculative Pre-History of Man

Speculative pre-history of Man, as the name suggests is an essay where Fuller writes about mankind and
its origin and how throughout time, humans have evolved from cavemen who used to be influenced by
natural conditions to survive to becoming beings capable of making devices that work at the tip of the
fingers. The essay discusses the transformation of man and of all the different natural factors that have
forced this change upon people; it talks about the different ages in human history including the ice ages,
Bronze Age and the Stone Age and how humans have adapted to these conditions and have always
worked on finding solutions around all types of situations.

Fuller takes Darwin’s theory of evolution into account while talking about history but instead of
discussing the evolution of humans from chimpanzee’s, he justifies that humans have always stayed in the
same physical form but have evolved in their habits, behaviors and reactions to scenarios and conditions
including moving from place to place based on fresh water routes, for food and shelter or from protection
against predators, apart from that natural environmental conditions including famine, flood, earthquakes
have also forced migration. The basic needs of the humans have remained same throughout the time but
their origin in nature and the way they need to be acquired and saved up for later has been changing and
turning and becoming more conventional and adaptable. It is also known to be true that all humans are
equal regardless of skin color and the only difference in intelligence and features of human off springs are
due to the parents.

Fuller talks about the ice ages and a time when all the continents were one big chunk of land and there
was no human life on earth. One of the best examples we have is of the boats and rafts the people in
Southeast Asia built to make their way across the world, it started with a simple discovery of two logs
floating in water and then evolved into the grand ships we know of today that are used to move thousands
of kilos of mass around. slowly with the passing of time, as the frozen mountains caps melted and the
land separated and life began on Earth, humans have been working their way around Earth, with
discoveries; accidental or deliberate, artificial or natural, humans have slowly become beings that have
bended materials and phenomenon available in the nature to their own will and have created materials and
objects that aid them in all spheres of life.

Shamaim Khan

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