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How Stone Tools, Fire, and Language Paved the Highway to Artificial Intelligence

Acheulian bifacial tools (hand-axes) from Burnham Beeches, Bucks. Image Source: This file comes from the Wellcome Collection, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom – CC BY 4.0

Many people are overwhelmed by the fast-paced evolution of mass communication in a world increasingly shaped by the internet and artificial intelligence (AI). Yet ideas have not always circulated across the globe at lightning speed.

Looking into deep time allows us to view our current mode of existence from a broader perspective and to discern patterns of change that may offer insights into our species’ possible trajectories in the future. We can begin by trying to identify the conditions under which humans developed complex symbolic communication, which is considered unique in the animal kingdom. Today, we have succeeded in transposing incredibly complex digital languages, beyond the grasp of the human mind, into computerized systems capable of processing, storing, and sharing all kinds of information with the push of a button or a click of a mouse.

Human language is at the root of this system. While hardly perceptible in the archeological record, hominin physiognomy assessed from the fossil record allows us to observe that the capacity to vocalize across a significant range dates back to a very early time period. Physical features linked to resonance complexity and articular precision, like the low positioning of the larynx, an enlarged pharyngeal cavity, and a flexible tongue housed in an ample palate, were already part of the human anatomy by the time Homo erectus emerged in Africa nearly 2 million years ago.

Somatic harmonization, necessary for speech production, is ensured by the tiny and crucial hyoid bone, a floating anchor for the muscles controlling the tongue, throat, and voice box as they work together to regulate sounds emitted during speech. Paleoanthropologists studying the position, geometry, and internal structure of Neanderthal hyoids discovered in archeological sites found them to be nearly identical to those of anatomically modern humans, suggesting that they were already capable of emitting a similarly sophisticated range of sounds. Evidence from Spain also reveals that modern hyoid morphology was present by at least 530,000 years ago, indicating that it could be a derived characteristic shared by modern humans and pre-Neandertals, which they inherited from their last common ancestor.

The ability to emit a wide range of vocalizations characteristic of modern human language did not appear abruptly, but rather, was favored over millennia by interrelated adaptive elections taking place under the evolutionary orchestration of both natural selection and techno selection. As early as around 7 million years ago, some early primates displayed several craniofacial modifications believed to have evolved, at least in part, to accommodate bipedal locomotion. These included features such as reduced prognathism, more gracile jawbones with smaller........

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