Cojana

gee whizz, after reading some responces it are quite clear I am being patronized,and redicule, I don't have to see substance being built, I know it was built by hands, I didn't see the Space Shuttle being built,I know it was built by hands, last remarks fot the member who asked when was the last time I saw giant trucks built by hands, I know it was sarcasm, con safos... :banghead:

Doubting Didymus

No, I'm serious. NONE of the things you mentioned were built by human hands. Certainly not a space shuttle. Sure, you can trace their construction eventually back to SOMETHING that was built by hand, but you're claiming that hands are the "perfect tool to manufacture and produce anything the brain can concieve". If hands were so perfect, we wouldn't use non-hand devices to further our construction and invention, but we do, because hands AREN'T perfect tools.

Hands can't build half the things the brain can conceive of. Brains can conceive of retina - surgery tools, hypodermic syringes, earthmovers, space shuttles and a million other complex things, but our hands can't make any of them. Sorry, but hands just don't live up to the rap you're giving them.

Cojana

Jiminiy Crickets, your a moderator, you are the cencus for the board, how can you be so tunneled to make the remarks you did? don't you know that any tool made to forge another substance to conform to specification are engeneered by the engeneers hands, your argument about hands not actually the tools that constructed the space shuttle are redundant, everything around you are products of hands, from the time you go to bed till the time you stick your key in your car are all productions of hands, were communicating via computers, another product made by hands, what do you mean Hands are not as nuch as I give them credit for??? Hands made the tools your talking about, we don't dig with our hands, thats why hands made the shovel,etc,etc,

Enai

Ooookayyy... I'd like to see you make a shovel (blade and staff) with your hands only. I'm curious as to how you'll go about forging the blade and cutting the staff without tools different from your hands. I assume digging with your hands is faster than waiting for the shovel to be finished. I assume other tools made by engineers are acually made by robots or employing tools, because our hands just aren't sharp enough to even cut paper, for instance.

Enai

Nialler

Your examples (the fine tools needed for surgery, the earth-moving equipment) actually prove the opposite to what you are saying; these tools are proof that our hands are too unwieldy for very fine surgery, and too small for large-scale work.

You also ignore the many faults in our "design". What about the appendix, what about our spinal column, which is so prone to damage, what about our large heads which are sufficiently ig as to make birth a risky process for both mother and child?

I will concede that Michelle Pfeiffer is pretty much a perfect design, but the average human frame? If I were the designer, I'd keep quiet about my efforts...

Cojana

I don't know whethere you two are pulling my strings, my opinion of this forum are intellectually sound, but to read your remarks and not fully realize if your sincere or messing with me are in question,,. when I say Hands are perfect tools, my intent are to proclaim Hands are capable of making any tool or instrument needed for construction or procedure,, the atomic bomb,or the microscope to find desease and cure it, as well as to destroy life in mass are all attribited to hands, hands did not sew your genes together,the needle and machine that did, hands made, every thing in this planet are constructed by hands,includes the road and car you drive, made by hands,..more-runs,...:banghead: :banghead:

Lobstrosity

No one here is "pulling your strings." Everyone just happens to disagree with your initial assertion that hands are PERFECT tools, and rightly so. The point everyone is making is that there are about a billion ways hands could be better constructed for bringing to fruition that which our brains conceive. Hands are remarkably crude with thick, clumsy fingers that are horrible at the fine dextrous work required by modern technology. We first had to use hands to make crude tools. We then used these crude tools (not hands) to make tools that were less crude. Continue the process through many, many iterations and we finally have tools that are capable of building all the things of which you speak. In short, hands are nowhere near perfect, they just let us get by. Without arms we probably could have found a way to get by using our mouths and feet (I saw this guy in the park not so long ago who could play the guitar so well with just his feet--he had no arms--that I had no idea just from listening that he wasn't using hands). Perhaps if you had titled this thread "hands are ok" or "the human design is adequate" you would have gotten less criticism.

Rhaedas

We're not belittling your comments, the combination of the human brain and the hand with opposable thumb has done wonders. But human hands are not perfect, nor can they directly do all that humans have done. Hence we have tools to extend our capabilities.

The question asked should be, could a being without hands, but with some other manipulative device, further create tools to fill in the gaps that they could not do alone? And I don't see any reason why they couldn't, tentacles, paws, or claws.

Really it's not the hands, but the ability to think that's the key...

Amaranth

If this were true, there would be no other tools.

braces_for_impact

Hands are very adaptive and slightly good at a wide variety of tasks. We created tools because they're much better for specific tasks for which they were created.

Your hand can do many, many things. Turn a bolt for example. It is not nearly as efficient at turning a bolt as a wrench, but a wrench, while great a turning bolts, is good for little else.