THREE MILLION YEARS AGO, MAN BEGAN TO WALK UPRIGHT, FREEING HIS HANDS TO HUNT AND GATHER; 1.5 million years ago, man began to create primitive tools; 30,000 years ago, paintings appeared on the side of cave walls; 10,000 years ago, agriculture emerged; Today, we come to another watershed in human evolution - The Information Age.
The information age extends previous trends in the evolution of human cognition. Man’s continuously unfolding mental capacity can be characterized by the externalization of information. One can recognize this pattern in the progression and adaptation of language and visual markings throughout the millennia. 

Delving into this theory, Norman (1993) argues, “The hallmark of human cognition lies not so much in our ability to reason or remember but rather in our ability to construct external cognitive artifacts and to use these artifacts to compensate for the limitations of our working and long-term memories”.
Contemporary media technologies exemplify such a theory of externalization. Humans have succeeded in increasing personal efficiency and reducing use of internal energy by distributing and storing information outside their cognitive domain. Intelligence can be defined as the degree in which humans benefit from external storage and processing of information.
Emerging technologies continually make life simpler and easier for humans, externalizing massive amounts of information into a hard drive, a palm pilot or even a cell phone. Locating the placement of all this external information challenges us to rethink conventional ideas about learning and education. “The key to intelligent interaction with a medium is to know how to optimize this distribution (of information), to know when to manipulate a device, when to look something up (or write something down), and when to keep something in mind” (Allen, 2001)

Natural selection appears to favor species that create systems for perceiving information from their environment, (externalization), with greater efficiency than obtaining equivalent information from within their own internal processes. In an example of contemporary man, an architect who uses a graphing calculator to graph some of the dimensions of a proposed skyscraper frees himself from thinking through small mathematical details to work on larger, more complex aspects of the design. This architect, because of his efficient use of external tools, wins the contract to build the skyscraper, giving him money to feed himself and his family, which gives him energy to reproduce.

Natural selection has also shown that organisms whose capabilities are shaped by niche (defined by O.E.D. as a position or role taken by a kind of organism within its community) are adapted to opportunities for action in their environment. For example, a squirrel eats nuts and lives in trees (its niche). Therefore, the squirrel has adapted itself to the action of climbing trees, whose bark yields nicely under a squirrel’s claws.

In regard to humans, our niche is living in artificial environments where we utilize external storage of data to “employ” ourselves (our action), thus enabling us to make money and obtain food. Is dragging a computer mouse over a folder and opening a file of vital information much different from a squirrel grabbing a nut and opening it up for nourishment? Both organisms perceive opportunities for action that aid in the production of energy that sustains life.
Whether emergent technologies serve humans well depends on how they work with humans’ ability to learn in everyday situations, which is based on opportunities for externalization and action. An effective system will not only utilize language and symbol-based communication, but will also allow for object-oriented manipulation and action. When such systems arise, will this technology help increase our intelligence, continuing the progression of human dominance on earth? Evolution may point us in this direction, but only time will tell.

Brock Allen and Richard Otto's chapter in the Handbook of Research For Educational Communications and Technology, titled "Media as Lived Environments: The Ecological Psychology of Educational Technology" is an excellent source of information on this topic.
Also, check out Jared Diamond's (1999) Guns, Germs and Steel and BBC's Web site on Cavemen and Human Evolution.

Douglas Fox
Graduate student, SDSU Educational Technology