Tasks, tools, and techniques that we perform, use, and acquire, define the elements of expertise which we value as the hallmarks of goal-driven behavior. Somehow, the creation of tools enables us to define new tasks, or is it that the envisioning of new tasks drives us to invent new tools? Or maybe it is that new tools engender new techniques which then result in new tasks? This jumble of issues will be explored and discussed in this diverse collection of papers. Individually, few of the papers are related to each other by topic or by techniques of analysis. Collectively, all focus on tasks performed using tools and discuss the techniques of tool use which enable differences in performance and expertise across individuals, societies, and (even) species.

中文翻译：

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编辑对任务、工具和技术的介绍

我们执行、使用和获得的任务、工具和技术定义了我们重视作为目标驱动行为标志的专业知识元素。不知何故，工具的创造使我们能够定义新的任务，还是新任务的设想驱使我们发明新的工具？或者也许是新工具产生了新技术，然后产生了新的任务？这些杂乱无章的问题将在这个多样化的论文集中进行探索和讨论。个别地，很少有论文通过主题或分析技术相互关联。总的来说，所有人都专注于使用工具执行的任务，并讨论工具使用技术，这些技术使个人、社会和（甚至）物种之间的表现和专业知识存在差异。