Ultimately, the meaning of a tool is inseparable from the stories that surround it. Consider the similarity between what is involved in creating and using a tool and the sequence of narrative. Even the chimpanzee picking up and peeling a twig to "fish" for termites requires the mental projection of a sequence, including an initial desire, several actions, and successful feeding. The sequence becomes more complex where more tools are involved, or when the same tool is used in several ways. Composing a narrative and using a tool are not identical processes, but they have affinities. Each requires the imagination of altered circumstances, and in each case beings must see themselves to be living in time. Making a tool immediately implies a succession of events in which one exercises some control over outcomes. Either to tell a story or to make a tool is to adopt an imaginary position outside immediate sensory experience. In each case, one imagines how present circumstances might be made different.
-- David E. Nye, Technology Matters: Questions to Live With