The power of information

Look at the technology around you: your phone, your computer, your car. Think about how complicated it was to create these technologies. Now ask yourself this: If, during your lifetime, you had never been able to speak to another human, how much of that technology could you dream up and build—all by yourself? No matter how smart and creative you are, the answer is probably simple: “Not much!”

Each of us is pretty smart by ourselves, but the complex human culture and technology we have today aren’t the product of individual geniuses. Rather, all the creative things that define our species were slowly built over time. They developed as millions of individuals shared their ideas over many generations. Our ability to share knowledge means we can tap into a huge information network assembled by millions of humans, both living and dead. No one person knows it all. Human knowledge is shared and passed on, and is improved by each generation.

Human vs. nonhuman information sharing

A species with lots of information about its environment can take advantage of that environment. To feed herself and her cubs, a lioness needs to know where to hunt. If she doesn’t have this information, she and her cubs will die. But if she can learn about the movements of her prey, she will have a steady diet and her family will survive. 

But the lioness is like a single computer. She has only as much memory as she can gather in her lifetime. Humans are more like linked computers—we have unlimited memory. You may be wondering why species like chimpanzees—who are so closely related to humans—don’t exchange ideas the way humans do. It’s probably not because they aren’t smart enough. The problem is with how they share information. Chimp language does not allow chimps to share enough information with each other. To get an idea of how powerful human language is, try telling a friend how to play football without talking, writing, or drawing. If you’re relying solely on gestures, you can really only exchange ideas about what is right in front of you. If you want to explain something as complex as football—or how to build a rocket ship—you need to be able to talk about the future and the past, and about things that don’t yet exist. 

Think of the power of a simple phrase such as pink elephant. By saying those two words, I can plant in your mind a picture of something that does not exist and never will. Humans regularly exchange word pictures. Chimp language, however, can’t do that. This human ability to use symbolic language has allowed us to cross a major threshold; it has given us the ability to collectively learn.

Symbolic language is the key

Human language explains why we can share detailed ideas across generations. For perhaps 250,000 years, humans have gathered a huge number of stories, traditions, ideas, and technologies. These have combined to give us more powerful ways of dealing with our surroundings and with each other.

Before farming and the creation of cities, foragers passed on what they knew to others, including their offspring. Early humans told each other stories and created songs, dances, and art to explain ideas and pass down knowledge. They taught their young how to hunt and what seasons were best for finding certain foods. As a result, each human acquired the knowledge that had been gathered by previous generations. In turn, each individual could add to that body of knowledge. Our species has a huge amount of information about the world. All that information equals a lot of power.

Collective learning empowers humans in another way. Individuals who share information with each other effectively can cooperate better. In fact, we share information so well that we can work together in teams. At first, these teams were made up of people in our foraging group. Later, these teams expanded to include those in our village or city. Today, we can create teams of people working together from all over the world. Today, millions of humans can cooperatively work toward a shared goal. No other creature is capable of teamwork on this scale.

When did collective learning begin?

This is a question we’re still trying to answer. We’re pretty sure other species of humans had the ability to share and pass down information to others. For example, about 2 million years ago, early humans such as Homo habilis could make stone tools. But toolmaking alone does not mean that a species is using collective learning. Other animal species—chimps and crows, for example—make and use tools. So, what makes humans different?

It is the ability to make, use, and improve tools that sets our ancestors apart from other animals. And these abilities seem to begin much earlier than we once thought. For many years, scholars thought that humans began improving on their toolmaking skills with Homo habilis or “handyman” humans, who lived from c. 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago. However, more recent evidence from Australopithecines, our primate ancestors, suggests that humans could make and improve tools as early as 3.4 million years ago.

As human species evolved and our brains grew, our toolmaking skills improved more quickly. Humans began attaching stone tools and blades to sticks. This technique, known as hafting, is unique to humans and shows how collective learning works. By combining knowledge that is passed down, humans can improve upon that knowledge to create something new. Eventually, with the invention of writing, the sharing of knowledge became more streamlined, which allowed our species to store information more efficiently and carry it across great distances to other places. Today, communication tools such as the internet allow us to improve and share our knowledge more rapidly than ever before.