Not the computer, the printing press, the steam engine, or the wheel would transform humanity as did this basic technological development: controlling flame. With fire they could harden points on spears, smoke small mammals from their burrows, drive elephants into bogs, steal a lion’s supper, and frighten all sorts of creatures from their caves—and then move in. The sick, the young, the old could lounge in camp. They were able to maintain a camp. And they could extend the day into the night, talk around the flame, and sleep in its protective glow. Unchained from the circadian rhythms of all
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