فصل 06

CHAPTER SIX

The Beginning of Man

There was a new animal on the planet, spreading slowly out from the African grasslands. There were still very few of them, and there was no reason to believe that they would continue to live, where so many bigger animals had failed.

In the hundred thousand years since Moon-Watcher had lived and died, the man-apes had invented nothing. But they had started to change. Their great teeth were becoming smaller, because they were not so necessary now. The sharp-edged stones that could be used to dig out roots, or cut through flesh, had begun to replace them. This meant that the man-apes could still eat when their teeth became damaged or old, and so they lived longer. And as their teeth grew smaller, their jaws became shorter. The greater variety of sounds they made were not speech, but speech was now possible.

And then the world began to change. Four Ice Ages came and went, with two hundred thousand years between each of them. They killed much of the planets early life, including many man-apes. But those tool-makers who continued to live had been remade by their own tools.

From using bones and stones, their hands had learned new skills. And these allowed them to make better tools, which had developed their hands and brains even more. The process of change became faster and faster, and the result was Man. And somewhere in that long period of time they had learned to speak. Now knowledge could be passed from parent to child, so each new age could profit from the ones that had gone before.

Unlike the animals, who knew only the present, Man had discovered a past, and was beginning to look towards a future.

He was also learning to use the forces of nature. When he discovered fire, he began the long process of technical change. In time, stone would be replaced by iron, and hunting would change to farming. The group would become a village, and the village would grow into a town.

And as his body became more and more defenseless, his power to attack became more frightening. With stone and iron he had discovered many ways to kill, and quite early he learned how to kill from a distance. From thawing sticks and stones to dropping bombs, his power increased until it was great enough to destroy the planet.

If he had not had those weapons, Man would never have become master of the world. For ages they had served him well.

But now, as long as they existed, he was living on borrowed time.