this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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I don't think that is actually the innovation that made us own the planet.
One human throwing rocks? Meh.
15-20 humans working together, some throwing rocks, others fetching new ones, or supplying the throwers? Jup. That would do it.
So, community and working together is what allowed us to win the crown.
We better not stop doing that..
There are lots of animals that have cooperative social groups and they don't rule the planet.
Very few can throw weapons.
Ants are much better organised, but they don't rule the planet
Communication, abstract planning, and being able to walk 100km without stopping is what really won it for us.
If you look at combat between predator/prey it's nearly always about who can attack while further away. Being able to throw rocks and pointy sticks was I think equally as important as being able to develop co-operative social groups.
Yeah, there were studies done that found a human can't reliably throw a rock hard enough to kill even a rabbit from pretty close range. Rocks are blunt and usually only stun the target.
It was the fact that a dozen people all throwing rocks is an unassailable obstacle to any predator or prey. You can corner animals or ward them away. And if you think about it that's always been roughly how human wars have gone: masses of spears, slings, arrows, bolts, bullets, shells, missiles, etc. Our one big trick is a DDoS of violence.
The ability to throw a rock allowed us to make slings incredibly effective