The Olduvai Stomp: How Homo Erectus Got the Beat — and Became Us
Posted: November 7, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: civilization, culture, development, empathy, humanity, unity 3 CommentsPropose rhythmic synchronization in Homo erectus as the key evolutionary inflection that enabled everything else we consider human.
ChatGPT Prompt
A student—Lucy, of course—has secretly brought the STOMP performers to the Olduvai Gorge paleoanthropology site. They pretend to accidentally find a beat, but the power of entrainment soon draws the actual scientists in, even as they slowly realize what is happening.
Act I — The Olduvai Stomp
Scene 1 – Arrival
- Setting: Olduvai Gorge, late afternoon. Wind sighs, cicadas buzz, dust glows.
- A team of scientists works quietly; Lucy arrives with four “volunteers” — STOMP performers disguised as field assistants.
- They unpack their tools innocently.
Scene 2 – The Work
- Everything is ordinary: trowels scrape stone, brushes flick dust, sieves shake grit.
- One performer drops a rock — clack–clack. Another answers — clack. A third shakes a sieve — shhh–thump–shhh–thump.
- Inside the rhythm of labor, a beat begins to breathe.
Radical Centrism 