This is exactly what I mean. You can also toss in the printing press snd the phonograph.
But those are still mechanical, while the Roman roads/bridges example you pointed out is a much better analogy, since bridges are (technically) a natural occurrence, more so than a manufactured invention, although they’ve certainly evolved over time, with the help of humanity to become more of the latter.
Therein is the heart of what I’m looking for. Are bridges a technological advancement of man or did nature “invent” it, then use us to perfect it?
Did we domesticate wheat or did wheat domesticate us?
I don’t think we’re the end all be all we think ourselves to be. I think we’re tools like everything else in life… just doing what we gotta do like everything else, such we get the symphony we see all around us.