Increase the development of human civilization by 50% with this one strange and forbidden idea! Read on at your own peril!

,

Background:

A simple observation: as creatures have become more complex and develop advanced societies, they tend to use fewer limbs for locomotion and more limbs for manipulating the world.

Compare these ”civilizational” achievements:

  • Snakes (0 legs, 0 arms): Basically no civilization at all.
  • Dogs (4 legs, 0 arms): Social structures in small groups. No space program.
  • Millipedes (1000 legs, 0 arms): Still basically no civilization, despite the impressive leg count.
  • Humans (2 legs, 2 arms): Large social structures. Able to have a space program.

From this data, we conclude that the key element in the progress of civilization is the number of arms. More arms = more advanced civilization.

Proposal:

The conclusion is obvious: humans are currently stuck at ”stage 2” (Figure 1), yet should be capable of ascending to “stage 3” without too much trouble, simply by hopping on one foot to move, and using the other foot as a sort of grasping claw.

Fig. 1: The green digits indicate the number of “manipulator” arms, which are also highlighted in green. Yellow indicates limbs that are primarily used for locomotion.

Conclusion:

This change would result in a 50% increase in manipulator arms, which should result in a corresponding 50% increase in civilization advances (whatever that means).

PROS: Should greatly increase human development: social, technological, ethical, you name it.

CONS: This theory of development fails to explain the counterexample of the STARFISH, certain species of which may have 24+ arms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_sea_star), yet seem to be totally unable to even develop a written language. Shameful.

Originally published 2026-05-18.