First, elephants. WI humans either never evolved or went extinct before leaving Africa, then at some time in the future an intelligent species of elephant appears? Loxodonta sapiens is as intelligent as humans and has a sophisticated vocal language.
My question is - what sort of technology could these elephants develop? An elephants trunk can do fine manipulation BUT they only have one "arm" ending in a "thumb" plus one "finger". Also, they have eyes on the side of their head which might make feats involving keen eyesight tricky. If you imagine humans making stuff (like simple tools, or fire) they usually have to use both hands and look closely at what they are doing.
Elephants are herbivores, so they don't need to hunt. They eat mainly grass, also trees, fruits and seeds. There might be some kind of plausible scenario for the gradual development of elephant agriculture, but problems include the sheer volume of food needed to feed an elephant, their lack of spare time (they spend 16 hours a day eating) and their nomadic lifestyle.
The only obviously plausible elephant-tech I can think of would be using stones to make marker-signs on the ground, giving useful information ("water-hole this way"). So if you can think of anything else, please post.
Second, hunter-gatherers. WI humans never invented agriculture, or for some reason it just never caught on (in OTL agriculture spread extremely slowly - it took 5500 years to get from Sumeria to Britain so obviously people weren't massively impressed by it). What kind of technology could hunter-gatherers invent? Would they be doomed to be stuck in the stone age forever?
My question is - what sort of technology could these elephants develop? An elephants trunk can do fine manipulation BUT they only have one "arm" ending in a "thumb" plus one "finger". Also, they have eyes on the side of their head which might make feats involving keen eyesight tricky. If you imagine humans making stuff (like simple tools, or fire) they usually have to use both hands and look closely at what they are doing.
Elephants are herbivores, so they don't need to hunt. They eat mainly grass, also trees, fruits and seeds. There might be some kind of plausible scenario for the gradual development of elephant agriculture, but problems include the sheer volume of food needed to feed an elephant, their lack of spare time (they spend 16 hours a day eating) and their nomadic lifestyle.
The only obviously plausible elephant-tech I can think of would be using stones to make marker-signs on the ground, giving useful information ("water-hole this way"). So if you can think of anything else, please post.
Second, hunter-gatherers. WI humans never invented agriculture, or for some reason it just never caught on (in OTL agriculture spread extremely slowly - it took 5500 years to get from Sumeria to Britain so obviously people weren't massively impressed by it). What kind of technology could hunter-gatherers invent? Would they be doomed to be stuck in the stone age forever?