Fire, Cells, and Circuits: When Fire Made Us Human

Fire marks one of the most profound turning points in the human story. Long before cities, writing, or machines, humans learned to live with fire, shape it, protect it, and pass it on.

In this session, we explore fire not just as a technology, but as a transformative force that reshaped human bodies, minds, and societies. From cooking and nutrition to protection, migration, shared space, and storytelling, fire altered how humans lived, gathered, and understood themselves.

Blending history, science, and myth, this chapter sets the stage for the Fire arc by tracing how humanity’s relationship with fire helped create the conditions for culture, cooperation, and the long path toward cognition, abstraction, and technology.

This session serves as a narrative and conceptual bridge between Cells and the deeper exploration of agency and intelligence that follows.