You’re fired

Humanity’s march, down to ChatGPT, is story of fire

There’s so much anxiety about gas out there. But it isn’t about gas, really. Deep down, it’s about being human. We are children of fire, and its masters, too. On current evidence, our ape-like ancestors figured out how to manage fire – mostly started by lightning –about 1.5mn years ago. Then, by a lucky accident, they started cooking, which made food not only tastier, but also more nutritious, and easier to digest.

That made large digestive systems unnecessary, along with large jaws and teeth. While apes chewed their stringy, fibrous food six hours a day; for us, one hour was enough. In fact, it left us with an energy surplus, which supports brain growth.

Human brains are so energy-hungry, they account for 20% of calorie burn at rest. So what? So this: without fire, there would be no Homo sapiens, and no ChatGPT. Fire also helped our brains grow, by letting us sleep long hours, without fear. A moonless night has, roughly, onetrillionth the light of a sunny day. And humans, with fewer rod cells in their eyes, are sitting ducks for leopards, and other nocturnal predators. Fire turned the scales, and not only against animals.

Burning midnight oil became key to social mobility. Bricks, Roman cement, engines, cannon, Apollo missions, Tomahawk missiles, even electricity – largely – are fire’s gifts. We need fire, and because gas is the only fuel most of us know how to use, we can’t help being especially antsy when we can’t get it.

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