Coincidentally, I'm about to write something on how culture may have originated from childlike play, which means that even fancy philosophy and science are like tinkering with a child's drawing or invisible friend.

Humanization of the wilderness begins as a work of childlike imagination, as in animism and other religious expressions, but it ends in technological transformation of the environment. This process is indeed self-referential because we see ourselves in our handiwork. Our tools and machines carry out functions that we program into them. These are extensions of our bodies and minds.