"Homo Instrumentum" - Man as Toolmaker

It started with a conversation.

I had enjoyed reading @willymac's story about how he was cutting some tenons for the first time in order to make a bed. Note: A "mortise and tenon" is a special kind of joint used in woodworking.

Tools come in all shapes and sizes ~ Image courtesy of Free-Photos

Because I love making things,

I found Will's story very engaging. However, I was a little concerned because he sort of "tossed off" a comment about finishing the tenons by standing the boards up on their end to make the final cuts.

This terrified me because I know how nasty a table saw can be, and how dangerous an operation like that could turn out to be.

And so I asked Will about it in a comment. I was greatly reassured to learn that he had actually built a fixture to hold the boards on end in a safe and secure fashion. Will had already made a tool to help him make his bed.

That got me thinking about we humans.

We make things. Not only do we make things, we make other things to help us make the things we're making.

In short, we are tool makers.

These tools, or instruments that we use to make things are often as interesting or more interesting than the end products that they produce.

The 3D Printer: A tool to make tools ~ Image courtesy of ZMorph3D

But let's take toolmaking one more step:

There are tools that make tools. My very favorite tool of this type is the 3D printer.

Through a process called additive manufacturing, a 3D printer—like the one in the above image—is very definitely a tool that can be used to make tools.

As a science fiction fan,

the be-all and end-all tool would be the replicator, a-la Star Trek. A replicator stores data that represents any physical object in any state, and on demand reproduces that object by converting pure energy into physical matter composing the object.

To be sure, that level of technology is still far beyond our reach.

The ultimate tool? A replicator. ~ Image courtesy of Wikimedia

But I'm not done yet...

For the absolutely, utterly ultimate in making, we have to go back rather than forward. Scripture tells us that when Jesus/God created the universe, he did so by merely speaking.

"And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."- Ref.

How cool is that! God made the universe by speaking it into existence. How often I've wished I could create things by simply speaking...

But, wait... Maybe I can?

Thanks to incredible advances in technology just in my own lifetime, we are approaching a really dumbed-down facsimile of that ability. Speaker independent speech recognition has become remarkably capable within the last ten years. Combine that with 3D design programs and 3D printing, and you can begin to make at least simple things just by speaking.

Jesus spoke the universe into existence, ex nihilo... ~ Image courtesy of John Hain

Thinking about such capabilities,

I am reminded of the content of the first telegram:

"What Hath God Wrought?"... ~ Image courtesy of Wikimedia

What, indeed?

I just hope mankind isn't getting too big for its britches.

Posted to both Weku and Steemit.

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