Pioneering technologist Kevin Ashton understands the power, beauty and danger inherent in the human art of storytelling. The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art is itself a commanding work of storytelling. Ashton recounts how we evolved into storytellers, from our shouts to warn our fellow humans about those hyenas stalking us to CGI-generated action films. But more importantly, he shows how stories created us. Stories not only impart lessons, they drive progress in technology, politics, science and, most especially, our humanity.
Ashton is a precise and logical writer who rigorously supports his arguments. This is not a dry history: Ashton is telling the story of stories, and he skillfully uses the storyteller’s craft to do so. Chapters and subchapters start with anecdotes about the people who enhanced storytelling. He uses the concept of saltation—the abrasive, downstream journey of a jagged stone that smooths it into a pebble—as an extended metaphor to describe the continuous progression of ideas, technologies and happenstance that contribute to the evolution of storytelling, from cave paintings to the smartphone. Real-world examples illustrate difficult concepts in ways both beautiful and comprehensible. To explain subjective reality, Ashton relates differences between human and canine perception, writing, “We meet dogs at the intersection of their reality and ours, and neither is any more real than the other.”
Vitally important, The Story of Stories lays out the dangers that we face if we fail as critical thinkers. Because stories are our attempt to create meaning out of chaos, sometimes the meanings we impart to them prop up oppressive structures and become tools of propaganda or vessels for conspiracy theories. However, when critical thinkers refuse to accept the easy but false truths of the standard story, they can instead push us toward greater human dignity, innovation and freedom. In a final chapter that is as terrifying as it is exhilarating, Ashton warns that our story technologies have become powerful enough to destroy these humanizing counter stories—unless we take our responsibility to be critical readers seriously. Beautifully written and engaging on every page, The Story of Stories issues a call to action that is nothing short of transformative.
