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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration vs. Individualism
Tools and Human Evolution
Space Travel
The Perils of Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the ape-men evolve. Though their fate is still uncertain, they begin to change because of their relationship to tools. The Ice Ages kill the man-apes, but their descendants survive, transformed—their brains bigger and their limbs more dexterous. In this way, the “toolmakers” are “remade by their own tools,” a cumulative process resulting in Man. They develop language, winning their first “great victory over Time,” and after that, writing. Though Man’s body becomes increasingly defenseless, his “means of defense” become ever greater, developing weapons of near infinite power. These weapons allowed Man to conquer his world, but now they also threaten the stability of his existence.
The man-apes’ relationship with tools proves immensely impactful. What were temporary, superficial changes for the original man-apes become, over millions of years, biologically codified. The man-apes become increasingly dependent on tools, becoming increasingly weak physically even as they grow increasingly dominant and powerful on Earth. These evolutionary changes result in the modern human, as well as in the development of increasingly powerful technology, suggesting that human nature is inextricably linked to tools, and vice versa. The two are symbiotic partners.
Themes
