Wills sheds his bright and steady light on some thorny questions: what is the nature of the difference between humans and our animal relatives? What i...moreWills sheds his bright and steady light on some thorny questions: what is the nature of the difference between humans and our animal relatives? What is the nature of evolution in modern society? What mechanisms of evolution caused our path to diverge so widely from other animals?
With a cool scientific mind and very light wit Wills guides us through the mechanisms of evolution in imagined jungles past, with early humans, and into the present. He even casts his imagination toward the future, reminding us that selective pressure will always shape the future of our species.
The message I take away from this lovely book, a few days after I've finished it and the technical details have faded from my memory, is that genetic diversity is important. For a species to survive, it must have a broad range of genetic choices within the gene pool to select for or against. And racist prognostications notwithstanding, we are not getting dumber as a species. In fact, due to better prenatal early childhood health our brains are suffering less damage than ever before.
Really a fantastic book-- one that whets my appetite for more information, and shoves me along to ask more questions and understand the processes and implications of human evolution. (less)
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