Re: virus: Technology (was manifest science)

Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Sat, 5 Jun 1999 12:22:05 -0400

>RE: "Only the usage of a tool can produce an artifact"
>
>What about human bones found in burial sites? Artifacts? Produced by
>tools?!?!?

Uh, what about 'em, indeed?

You must be talking about bones used as tools, yes, not just the fact that once a being is buried, what remains after a few decades, is, uh, just bones?

Yes, of course you must.

Well, yes, if you mean a bone that was fashioned and honed to a point to be used as a needle, then, yes, it was produced by tools.

If you mean just a bone that was found and then broken to make an edge, and then used as a knife, yes, that required a tool- a being's hand and arms to break it. The 'use' of the tool is what is in question here. A broken bone located in a burial cistern is not a tool until it is used. But a hammer is, just sitting there.

"Only the usage of a tool can produce an artifact" meets all the truth tests, and is tautological to boot, for what is the definition of 'artifact'?

  1. An object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, a weapon, or an ornament of archaeological or historical interest.