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Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
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About This Book
In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, a winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books shows how four tools have enabled humans to control the destiny of our species. What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution – a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones – caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements – fire, language, beauty, and time – our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvellous.
Reviews
"thoughtful and engaging ..."
"[Vince] uses up-to-date scholarship ..."
"The author draws on extensive travels and many interviews with scientists to offer vivid accounts of these forces at work in the lives of our 'cultural forebears' ..."
"She also avoids some of the misplaced certainty of her peers — reminding us of the ambiguity in all of this."
"[a] hugely enjoyable sprint through human evolutionary history ..."
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