The philosopher Plato (428-347 BCE) offers the following myth to explain the origin of human technology, along with its limitations:
 

Once upon a time, there existed gods but no mortal creatures. When the appointed time came for them to be born, the gods formed them within the earth out of a mixture of earth and fire and the substances compounded of earth and fire. And when they were ready to bring them into the light, they charged Prometheus and Epimetheus with equipping them and allotting suitable powers to each kind. Now Epimetheus begged Prometheus to allow him to do the distribution himself—"and when I have done it," he said, "you can review it." So he persuaded him and got to work. In his allotment he gave to some creatures strength without speed, and equipped the weaker kinds with speed. Some he armed with weapons, while to the unarmed he gave some other faculty and so contrived means for their preservation... He made his whole distribution on a principle of compensation, being careful by these devices that no species should be destroyed.

When he had sufficiently provided means of escape from mutual slaughter, he contrived their comfort against the seasons sent from Zeus, cloaking them with thick hair or hard skins...and he planned that when they went to bed the same covering should serve as a proper and natural blanket for each species. He shod them also, some with hooves, others with hard and bloodless skin. Next he appointed different sorts of food for them... Some he allowed to get their nourishment by devouring other animals, and these he made less prolific, while he bestowed fertility on their victims...

Now, Epimetheus was not particularly clever, and before he realized it he had used up all the available powers on the brute beasts; the human race was left on his hands unprovided for, and he did not know what to do with them. While he was puzzling over this, Prometheus came to inspect the work, and found the other animals well off for everything, but man naked, unshod, unbedded, and unarmed, and already the appointed day had come when man too was to emerge from within the earth into the daylight. Prometheus, being at a loss to provide any means of salvation for man, stole from Hephaestus and Athena the gift of skill in the arts, along with fire—for without fire it was impossible for anyone to possess or use this skill—and gave it to man. In this was man acquired sufficient resources to keep himself alive, but had no political wisdom. This was in the keeping of Zeus, and Prometheus no longer had right of entry to the citadel where Zeus lived...

By the art they possessed, men soon discovered articulate speech and names, and invented houses and clothes and shoes and bedding and got food from the earth. Thus provided for, they lived in scattered groups; there were no cities. Consequently they were devoured by wild beasts, since they were weaker in every respect, and their technical skill (though a sufficient aid for nurturance) did not extend to making war on the beasts, for they did not have the art of politics, of which the art of war is a part. They tried therefore to save themselves by coming together and founding fortified cities, but when together they injured one another through lack of political skill, and so scattered again and continued to be devoured. Thus Zeus, fearing the total destruction of our race, sent Hermes to impart to men the qualities of respect for others and a sense of justice, so as to bring order into our cities and create a bond of friendship and union.