A funny thing happened on the way to the campfire. We evolved.

And now I kind of miss the campfire, which was a comfortable place for storytelling. Because look at what has happened since. And where we are now.

I’m stuck in a train of thought here. Just finished reading an article that was written by Michael Kovnat and Kevin Ashton, who wrote the book “The Story of Stories, The Million-Year History of Uniquely Human Art.”

The article pulls highlights from Ashton’s book and focuses on the evolution of storytelling and the revolution we live with now. (Read the article in full at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com. Kovnat is co-founder of Next Big Idea Club.)

“We’re not just a species that tells stories,” Ashton says. “We’re a species whose brains literally evolved to be story-shaped. Storytelling didn’t just change human culture – it created the human mind.

“We are all born storytellers. None of us can spend a waking day without seeking and sharing stories. The first purpose of language is story.”

Ashton notes that storytelling advances have led to social revolutions.

“It’s predictable. It’s inevitable,” he says. “Fire brought tribes together for the first spoken stories. Writing spread stories beyond their tellers. Printing caused the Protestant Reformation and multiple political revolutions. Radio and television transformed the 20th century.

“And now? Smartphones have put broadcast power into everyone’s pocket.”

In some ways, that’s a good thing because, as Ashton notes, every human being is a born storyteller. Our daily conversations are narratives, slices of our life stories.

“We are the species with story-shaped brains, and storytelling is as fundamental to human existence as breathing,” Ashton said. And now the smartphone and online connections put that power in everyone’s hands.

“This is both wonderful and terrifying. ... What have we unleashed?” asks Ashton. “The anxiety, addiction, misinformation, and polarization aren’t accidents,” he said.

“They’re inevitable symptoms of a storytelling revolution that is as significant as the invention of writing or printing. We’ve reached the apex of a pattern that began when our ancestors first sat around fires.”

Adding artificial intelligence to the mix stirs up a huge storm cloud. It has become very difficult to tell the actual from the artificial. Fact from fiction.

“That means becoming more self-aware, engaging in more self-reflection, feeling more doubt and humility than ever before,” Ashton said. “But our uniqueness is our power.

“We must know that we think in stories, and we always will. … This is the story of stories: it’s not just about understanding our past. It’s about surviving our future. We evolved to be storytellers. Now we must evolve to be critical consumers of stories too.”

Ashton is right. We are surrounded by storytellers. All ages. Different agendas. We need to think hard about the story being told, especially stories that trigger us, like those that make us angry or give us hope about “a new cure.”

Besides the story, we also should take a closer look at the storyteller. It’s not a campfire anymore. The storyteller is probably not your neighbor. In fact, it’s hard to connect a face with a voice. Especially if there is no face. Or the face has been cloned. It’s not always easy, though, deciding who to believe. And how do you make that decision anyway? Based on what?

I know how easy it is to believe in a story that feels good, sounds good, tells me what I want to hear, and confirms what I believe. I read stories every day that I really, really want to believe. (This is why scams work, I guess.) And it is so, so hard sometimes to avoid being sucked in by headlines that promise more than they deliver.

I’ve been a storyteller for a long, long time. A journalist. An editor. I should know better. But, as Ashton has noted and history confirms ... we do love a good story, don’t we?

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.