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The Runaway Brain: The Evolution Of Human Uniqueness
You might not suspect it, but we are currently living through a revolution in scientific knowledge. What we know about the human brain's workings and about the earliest history of our distant humanoid ancestors changes almost weekly. A new view of humanity is being forged - new theories appear all the time, splinter, are revised and adandoned. Scientists from different fields of research are finally co-operating and sharing their insights in order to map out a new view of the human brain. Paleaoanthropologists digging in Kenya, neuropyschologists building organic robots in their labs and geneticists unearthing the secret in all our genes have all thrown their ideas into the melting pot...where they combust. The way we view who we are, where we came from and how we came to think at all is being altered irrevocably. And this is the subject-matter of this book.
400 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 29, 2023
At the beginning of 2023, I noticed an article pertaining to the evolution of the human brain. It suggested that somewhere in the past, our brains took a big jolt of growth because of an increase of proteins. Not everyone agrees with this, but then not everyone initially agreed with the death-by-asteroid elimination of the dinosaurs. As I was reading the article, I felt quite proud of myself for even knowing what was being stated, but that was because I was reading this book at the time. Thanks to some intense research and understated writing by Christopher Willis, everything about the evolution of homo sapiens makes sense now. Even though this book was published in 1993, before the entire human genome was mapped, it makes the reader appreciate human intellect and human nature.
There is a lot to digest in this book. While it gets a bit over-my-head in some sections, it opens questions in others. For instance, though written in the 1990s, it does not shy away from highlighting the various professionals who opposed the idea of humans originating on the African continent. Why? Because of racial prejudices.
In short, it would seem, the scientific establishment would embrace anywhere but Africa as a place for human origins, and any scheme for human evolution but one that implied the dreadful possibility that our ancestors might have been black.
Once the book establishes where we started forth, it’s quite a journey to go through each anthropological find as mankind progressed. The human brain is also an example of how pressure can be a good thing. And by “pressure”, I mean being forced by environmental changes to create new ways of living. There is a general rule which states that one group will evolve, one group will go extinct, and one group will migrate. We know the Neanderthals disappeared, but many groups migrated, landing all over the globe. We adapted to jungles, deserts, and islands. All because the ever-evolving human brain said, “Move on or die”.
I particularly enjoyed the section on the Indigenous Australians. The theory is that their ancestors crossed a land bridge from Papua New Guinea but then became isolated on the Australian continent because of the rapid increase of worldwide water levels. Yet, the remembrance of such catastrophic flooding lives on today.
The flood legends of the Middle East have been confused and distorted by subsequent events. But an elder of an aboriginal tribe could point to the specific features of the landscape that had been drowned by the flood that was actually witnessed by his remote ancestors.
It is also a warning that runaway evolution cannot continue forever. It seems the human brain has evolved so rapidly that we are on the way to destroying ourselves and other species. Intelligence breeds arrogance. The origin of consciousness is indeed amazing, so long as we don’t drive ourselves into extinction.
Book Season = Autumn (migrate before the cold)
There is a lot to digest in this book. While it gets a bit over-my-head in some sections, it opens questions in others. For instance, though written in the 1990s, it does not shy away from highlighting the various professionals who opposed the idea of humans originating on the African continent. Why? Because of racial prejudices.
In short, it would seem, the scientific establishment would embrace anywhere but Africa as a place for human origins, and any scheme for human evolution but one that implied the dreadful possibility that our ancestors might have been black.
Once the book establishes where we started forth, it’s quite a journey to go through each anthropological find as mankind progressed. The human brain is also an example of how pressure can be a good thing. And by “pressure”, I mean being forced by environmental changes to create new ways of living. There is a general rule which states that one group will evolve, one group will go extinct, and one group will migrate. We know the Neanderthals disappeared, but many groups migrated, landing all over the globe. We adapted to jungles, deserts, and islands. All because the ever-evolving human brain said, “Move on or die”.
I particularly enjoyed the section on the Indigenous Australians. The theory is that their ancestors crossed a land bridge from Papua New Guinea but then became isolated on the Australian continent because of the rapid increase of worldwide water levels. Yet, the remembrance of such catastrophic flooding lives on today.
The flood legends of the Middle East have been confused and distorted by subsequent events. But an elder of an aboriginal tribe could point to the specific features of the landscape that had been drowned by the flood that was actually witnessed by his remote ancestors.
It is also a warning that runaway evolution cannot continue forever. It seems the human brain has evolved so rapidly that we are on the way to destroying ourselves and other species. Intelligence breeds arrogance. The origin of consciousness is indeed amazing, so long as we don’t drive ourselves into extinction.
Book Season = Autumn (migrate before the cold)
April 16, 2018
I'm no expert in this field, primarily evolution, but I found this book a great read and quite thought provoking. I didn't know about the alternate view of evolution (neutralism?--against natural selection), and I found that discussion most interesting of all. Clearly there is much more going on with evolution than we dare to imagine thus far. He could not explain definitively how we got our unique status, which is what the book is all about. But he leads one far down the path to a solution, reminding us that science searches for the next mystery, not exactly the next solution.
July 21, 2021
All right. A little bio-heavy for my taste and I've read a few other books about evolution, but this one really tied things together.
July 25, 2011
In my lifelong effort to understand what makes us human, I long ago arrived at the lynchpin to that discussion: our brain. Even though bipedalism preceded big brains, and we couldn't be who we are without that upright stance, I believe we would be little more than vertical apes without being followed quickly by an explosion in our brain size. And, I'm not talking about volume--quantity--as much as quality. Neanderthals taught us brain growth must be in the correct part of the brain. Bigger, stronger animals require bigger stronger brains, but that doesn't mean they are more efficient or effective. Neanderthals had a brain bigger than modern man, but it was used to drive their life style, not their evolution.
It is this topic that Christopher Wills investigates in his wonderful book, The Runaway Brasin: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness (Harper Collins 1993). His approach is not so much a simple discussion of our brain's changes over time as a focus on how those changes turned the genus Homo into the most unique animal on the planet. His writing is fun, easy-to-understand and almost like a thriller as we are forced to turn pages long after we might have put the book down. Why? We must see what happens next. He discusses not only evolution, but brain growth in modern man--how does the brain mature throughout our own lifetime. I learned most of this in my child psychology classes, but reading it through his eyes was so much more fun than the way my professors described it.
The real meat of the book is his discussion of changes in the brain that enabled our evolution to Thinking Man. So much of what we are wouldn't be possible without drastic changes in the brain's structure. Mutations, certainly, but we're thankful for them. Our ability to speak as we do is one. Our interest in art and music--symbolic thinking, where we don't just say things in a black-and-white sort of way, but use mental pictures. As recently as the early 1900's, this sort of symbolic thinking allowed primitive tribes to travel their habitat without ever getting lost--even to places they had never before been.
How did we come up with counting? How did we decide to adorn ourselves with paint and jewelry? These would not have occurred without changes in our brain that made these seem normal. Why does man problem-solve? Most other species follow instinct. If there isn't a solution that's hard-wired into their genes or they can learn from a parent, it's out of their reach. Not mankind.
These are all part of the Runaway Brain. Jump in and don't let go. If you borrow the book from the library, you'll end up purchasing it because you'll want to refer to it over and over.
It is this topic that Christopher Wills investigates in his wonderful book, The Runaway Brasin: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness (Harper Collins 1993). His approach is not so much a simple discussion of our brain's changes over time as a focus on how those changes turned the genus Homo into the most unique animal on the planet. His writing is fun, easy-to-understand and almost like a thriller as we are forced to turn pages long after we might have put the book down. Why? We must see what happens next. He discusses not only evolution, but brain growth in modern man--how does the brain mature throughout our own lifetime. I learned most of this in my child psychology classes, but reading it through his eyes was so much more fun than the way my professors described it.
The real meat of the book is his discussion of changes in the brain that enabled our evolution to Thinking Man. So much of what we are wouldn't be possible without drastic changes in the brain's structure. Mutations, certainly, but we're thankful for them. Our ability to speak as we do is one. Our interest in art and music--symbolic thinking, where we don't just say things in a black-and-white sort of way, but use mental pictures. As recently as the early 1900's, this sort of symbolic thinking allowed primitive tribes to travel their habitat without ever getting lost--even to places they had never before been.
How did we come up with counting? How did we decide to adorn ourselves with paint and jewelry? These would not have occurred without changes in our brain that made these seem normal. Why does man problem-solve? Most other species follow instinct. If there isn't a solution that's hard-wired into their genes or they can learn from a parent, it's out of their reach. Not mankind.
These are all part of the Runaway Brain. Jump in and don't let go. If you borrow the book from the library, you'll end up purchasing it because you'll want to refer to it over and over.
July 27, 2014
The first section on evolution was interesting, not least because it also explained a bit about the factions that developed in amongst the evolutionary archaeologists. The middle section on genetics was way above my head, and I struggled for a bit, but then totally gave up - I really didn't see what the history of how an allele in a chromosome in a mouse had anything to do with evolution. Too much detail for my little brain.
The last section was ok, but I'd rather lost the will to live by then.
Also the book is now old - 20 years? and to be honest I just kept thinking - "is this current theory? What are evolutionary archeologists/biologists saying NOW?
So really, I think my top tip would be to try to find a more up to date book about this subject.
The bits that I understood - the first section and to a lesser extent the third, were "good reads" - engaging and informative and not too high brow.
Recommended - only for those seriously interested in this subject.
The last section was ok, but I'd rather lost the will to live by then.
Also the book is now old - 20 years? and to be honest I just kept thinking - "is this current theory? What are evolutionary archeologists/biologists saying NOW?
So really, I think my top tip would be to try to find a more up to date book about this subject.
The bits that I understood - the first section and to a lesser extent the third, were "good reads" - engaging and informative and not too high brow.
Recommended - only for those seriously interested in this subject.
August 26, 2016
This is an extremely powerful piece of work. Christopher Wills is an exceptional storyteller. A major chunk of this book discusses Human Evolution and does it in a readable and gripping way. The other chunk is on genetics-mutations-Drosophila and the runaway brain. This is a book for everyone to read of course but in case you are a student and are wanting to get hold of a book that clears away in your mind the confusion of understanding how evolution can shape the brain etc. this is it. Read it and you will see why! So many interesting studies on how environment is also a major component which results in genotype-environment interactions have been mentioned. This is a remarkable journey into the world of Human Uniqueness. Enjoy!
April 24, 2018
The author spends most of the book making case for his thesis. Lots of genetics, but explained well. I liked when he said that chimps don't draw as much information from the world around them as well do: "They can see the stars, but they do not regard them." The author demonstrates that it would take very little genetic mutation to produce humans. We may have evolved in multiple places around the world because we are driven to become human by a gene environment feedback loop. Most of the genetics that make us human was already in place by the time of homo erectus.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews