For thousands of years, as hunters and gathers, our ancestors had no great need to consider the behavior and feelings of individuals outside their group since they lived in tight-knit bands of low density. In an agricultural society, hunters and gatherers had to forage for roots, berries, nuts, and other foods, and they were fairly dependent on individuals close to camp for their survival. Within their habitat, hunters and gatherers laid the foundation necessary, although rudimentary and highly localized, for thought, reason, language, and culture, as noted by James Burke and Robert Ornstein. Technologically, minds and cultures have been keenly altered since humans trekked across the planet millenniums ago using basic tools as their chief vehicles for meaning making.

Today, the virtual world of the Internet, ...