How farming planted seeds for the Internet - Patricia Russac

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough
Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

We talk about inventions and innovation as though the best things out there are the Internet, iPads, or smartphones. Or perhaps more simply, trains, planes, and automobiles. Which one is most important, the best, or the greatest? Which one has had the most impact on society? Today, the debate would probably be in favor of computer technology, but is it? Well, some would say, "Nope, not really, it's farming."

Where would we be if we didn't have it? Give up? We would still be hunting and gathering with little time to invent anything, let alone the Internet. That's right, farming is the seed of civilization. Not quite literally, but without early man's discovery of using seeds to grow grain, we wouldn't have much of anything we have today. Growing your own food changed everything.

Sure, hunting and gathering worked just fine for tens of thousands of years, but you couldn't do much else—no time. But when hunters and gatherers started planting seeds, they began to farm. With farming came animals, and with animals came settling down and staying in one location. So, how does this have anything to do with invention and innovation? Everything.

Anyone who's ever farmed, even if it's planting a half dozen tomato plants in your backyard, knows that you usually harvest way more than you could possibly eat, a surplus. Farming yielded plenty of food, with enough to store, trade, and eat. In other words, not everyone needed to be farmers. Therefore, this allowed other people, non-farmers, to do other things such as make tools, craft pottery, and build homes.

Farming and food surpluses led to the division of labor. This is still thousands of years ago, so life wasn't easy. But with so many people contributing to the community, small villages began to develop. As the population of villages expanded, so did the needs of the people. Things got complicated. But, civilization is just that—advanced, complex societies. And without farming, they would not exist.

Villages increased in size, eventually becoming the first cities. Cities are just one of the basic features of a civilization; the others include central government, a system of writing, organized religion, art and architecture, urban planning of roads, bridges, and public works, social classes, and different jobs. Developing expertise in various types of occupations allowed for innovative ways of doing things, producing new products, or making advancements in technology.

As civilizations became more complex, new ways of doing things were needed. Some were out of necessity. Others because people had ideas. The sharing of ideas and technology led to the growth of things we readily use today, like the Internet. So without farming, we'd still be hunting and gathering. No video, no computers, and certainly no world wide web.