
Stone tools may have been used before our genus came on the scene - Libertatea
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/05/20/stone-tools-may-have-been-used-before-our-genus-came-on-the-scene/
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hyperion2010
The question of whether certain tools/techniques such as fire and stone
flaking have a single origin or were repeatedly rediscovered is quite
interesting. Unlike in purely genetic evolution innovation seems a bit more
likely to repeat itself but I still like to imagine that some protohominid
figured out how to use fire some time a couple million years ago and everyone
since then has observed how to use fire from that one lineage.

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contingencies
Fire is not one thing. You have quite different ideas people would have
grappled with like observe naturally occurring fire (eg. from lightning, in
terms of light and heat properties), tend fire, store fire, make fire, cook on
fire, differentiate properties of cooked and non-cooked food, differentiate
properties of heated/burned, discover heating's effect on various materials,
etc.

