Animal-Centred Technology and Sustainable Development: an Earth Odyssey

The Dawn of Man, the opening sequence of Kubrik sup[1]/sup’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, famously provides an iconic and poignant imagining of the moment when humans discover technology:br/br In a primordial landscape, great apes survive by foraging alongside other herbivores, by dodging the attacks of carnivores and by competing with rival troops for access to water. One fateful dawn, the apes awaken to the sight of a monolith, its geometric dark form stark against the rugged desertic landscape, a rising sun and crescent moon perfectly aligned above it. The alien intelligence that the object embodies changes the way the apes look at the world. So, when next rummaging for food amongst scattered bones, one of them suddenly realises that a femur can be used as a tool to kill the animals alongside whom he had been foraging and who will thus become his prey. Soon after, all members of the ape’s troop brandish the same kind of weapon, which allows them to defeat a rival troop by killing one of its members and scaring away the others, and thus seize control of the local water source. From then on, the dawning man is set onto a path of technological development that will lead him, millions of years later, to colonise space.