A tradition that burns on

Over the course of last weekend, many people partook in various activities in the great outdoors in order to take ad­vantage of the favorable weather. One such activity was sitting with friends around a blazing fire in the midst of night. It’s fun to talk with friends around a fire, especially while the flames dance and illuminate the surrounding cheerful faces. It is also a fantastic time to indulge in a gooey s’more or a hot dog after the fire dies down to a bed of embers.

While fire has been an excellent means for contemporary recreation, usually the centerpiece of any gathering from camp­ing to picnics, it has played a role in the development of humanity whose impor­tance can barely be fathomed. There is a reason why Charles Darwin believed that the two greatest human achieve­ments were language and fire.

Fire has no doubt shaped the course of human history, even before there were even humans who could record it. Most likely it was over two million years ago that the first proto-human, Homo erectus, mastered the creation and use of fire. The invention of fire most likely occurred as the result of an observation of a wildfire, an event which would have caused animals to flee out of the fire and into the waiting proto-human hunters. The aftermath of the wildfire could have also made foraging significantly easier, with the food already cooked before be­ing discovered. This discovery would have lead to the proto-humans learning to cook food, which is vital since cooked food is much more nutritious than that of the raw variety. This extra nutrition and less time spent on getting food carries over to greater advancements in these proto-humans, advancements such as language and greater tool development. Over time, these much needed calories allowed for the human mind and body as we know it today to develop. There is, however, much more that fire has done for humanity than just facilitating better food.

One recent theory about the develop­ment of humanity is that fire allowed for proto-humans to sleep easier. It is sus­pected that animals were driven away in the night by the flames, granting sleep­ing proto-humans to develop and enter rapid eye movement. REM occurs in cycles during sleep, and it is during each cycle that the brain stores memories of previously practiced tasks. This allows for the development of skills over time as the brain stores the practice of the skill for long term use. The reason why fire was so important is because of the safety it allots during another thing that occurs during REM cycles; where the body is put into a form of natural pa­ralysis so the body doesn’t try to act out the actions that occur in the most vivid parts of dream. This would tend to ex­plain why humans typically spend more time in REM sleep than other primates.

While in the modern age fire is no longer required for survival, we still celebrate the triumphs of our predeces­sors every time we huddle around it for warmth and merriment. It is thus in tra­dition of the ancestors of humanity that Michigan Tech students would revel in each crackle of a smoldering log last weekend.