Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time

Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time

<b>In the tradition of <i>Guns, Germs, and Steel </i>and <i>Sapiens, </i>a winner of the </b><b>Royal Society Prize for Science Books shows h</b><b>ow four tools enabled has us humans to control the destiny of our species</b><br /><b>"A wondrous, visionary work." --Tim Flannery, </b><b>scientist and author of the bestselling <i>The Weather Makers</i></b><br />What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of <i>Sapiens</i> will say a cognitive revolution -- a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones -- caused a cultural explosion. In <i>Transcendence</i>, 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, <i>Transcendence</i> shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.