Are we going backwards in evolution?

[pawsies]

When I think back to human history we have made some incredible feats. From the discovery of various things to inventions and architecture.
It seems like the modern day and future will be not as impressive as we rely so much on technology and the practical skills are being lost in future generations. How many of us Google 'how to..' or look up YouTube for how to do something?
Whereas the ancient Greeks and other ancestors managed to invent or build things without resorting to technological means.
Technology is of course an incredible feat in itself but are we relying on it too much to teach ourselves and our family things that a community would do together in the past? Or is it just a new form of community?
Then we have social media which is creating a whole new generation of people obsessing over appearance and what people think of them. Very few practical skills being learnt there.

It just seems like we are going backwards compared to the previous feats that our society has accomplished.

What do you think?

It can't be one of the things that distinguishes us from animals

Now that's the eternal question Especially with modern communication and recording technologies, we are slowly discovering things that blur the line.

For example I was amazed (which is always a good test that you are alive still ) recently to learn than man is not the only animal that uses fire. Apparently in Australia there are eagles that will pluck a burning branch from a bushfire, carry it over a distance to a bit of bush that is protected from the fire (say by a road or river) and drop it into the bush to start a fire. At which point all the lizards and rodents and whatnots flee the fire to be eaten by the eagles that are perching waiting for them.

As I say, amazed. And one less unique thing about humans.

Wow! That is indeed amazing, and absolutely fascinating.

And YY to discoveries. I think it's fairly recent we realised that octopuses are actually really intelligent and use tools, isn't it? I was watching youtube videos of them building shelters with my daughter last night. So even the hierarchies we used to use to classify animals don't always work the way we thought they did.

Avian intelligence is well worth investigating. After all, it comes from (some of) the dinosaurs.

Magpies and crows are fearsomely intelligent. Able to plan and communicate from some apocryphal stories I've heard. And Magpies are one of the few species that can recognise itself in a mirror. (Which is something that as a species mankind appears to struggle with at times )

Oh, and that eagle behaviour ? It's speculated that maybe humans saw it and learned to use fire to control vegetation from the eagles. Which explains some of the legends of the peoples.

Wow, that is amazing!

Here's where I heard about the eagles.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000dy6q

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Ed Byrne, forensic chemist Niamh Nic Daeid and biologist Adam Rutherford, as they explore the science of fire and how it has impacted the evolution of life on earth. They also look at whether controlling fire is a uniquely human trait and how other species have evolved to use fire to their advantage.

Adam Rutherford may be familiar to some from the feminist boards ...

Seems a good place to drop this :

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51532781

Researchers have described the first "articulated" remains of a Neanderthal to be discovered in a decade.