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Zusammenfassung von The Book of Humans

Name: The Book of Humans
Rating: 4.2 (209 reviews)
Author: Adam Rutherford

Adam Rutherford

A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War and the Evolution of Us

4.2 (209 Bewertungen)

21 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

"The Book of Humans" by Adam Rutherford explores what it means to be human in the age of genetic mapping. Rutherford unpacks the past, present, and future of our species, challenging long-held beliefs about race, identity, and intelligence.

Themen

Naturwissenschaft Biowissenschaften Wandel & Evolution Tiere Sex Kultur

Inhaltsübersicht

The Book of Humans
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What’s in it for me? Discover why humans are – but also aren’t – special.

Human beings are a special bunch. Our brains are capable of cognitive wonders. Our language is wildly complex. It’s no wonder that, to this day, we regard animals as mere beasts of the field.

But, in truth, human specialness is a marginal matter. As these blinks reveal, the things we have in common with animals all but eclipse the things that differentiate us from them.

Jam-packed with stories from across the animal kingdom, this whirlwind tour of evolutionary history may change the way you see yourself and your place in the world. Full of scientific discoveries, genetic breakthroughs, and archaeological finds, these blinks are a delightful compendium of how animals evolve.

A quick warning: blink 4 contains frank descriptions of animal sexuality.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how crows teach their young;
that humans aren’t the world’s only farmers; and
about a particular bonobo greeting (hint: it’s R-rated).

Animals use tools. But human tools are far more advanced.

What makes you human? Is it the fact that you can call up a friend and communicate in a shared and highly complex language? Is it the fact that you can learn how to use – or even make – a computer? Or is it that you, unlike any other animal, can produce and discuss art?

We humans like to think of ourselves as kings among animals, but the same evolutionary processes that made us also made them. Animals have sex, just like us. They build social structures, just like us. They even use tools in some very “human” ways. Much as we hate to admit it, we humans simply aren’t all that special.

And yet at the same time – we are. No other species has cognitive powers as sophisticated as ours; no other has a language or culture as complex as ours. There’s a paradox at the heart of our existence: we are simultaneously animals and extraordinary among animals.

The key message here is: Animals use tools. But human tools are far more advanced.

A tool is something external to an animal’s body used to extend its power. A tool can be a found object, a modified object, or something entirely manufactured – in other words, a technology. A barrette is a tool for clipping back hair. A computer is a tool for conducting arithmetic operations.

For a long time, scientists believed we were the only animals to use tools. Now we know that’s not true.

Chimpanzees, for example, use sticks to hunt termites. Orangutans use them to fish rivers, and gorillas use them to test the depths of waters they need to ford.

Yet despite an impressive range of tool use in the animal kingdom, the prevalence of tool use is low: only 1 percent of all species use them. Technology, in other words, is relatively rare. And no other animal’s technologies are nearly as complex as ours. That’s partly because few other animals have brains as big as ours. But it’s also because no other animal is as dexterous as we are. You’re not likely to see a dolphin crafting a violin, despite its densely packed neocortex. Flippers, alas, are not as nimble as fingers.

But, flippers notwithstanding, dolphins and their creative tool use do have a lot to teach us. And that’s what we’ll explore in the next blink.

Very few animals acquire skills through both biological and cultural transmission.

If you’re human, which you probably are, you’ve used tools your whole life. You’ve used a pencil to write something down. You’ve used a glass to drink water. But have you ever used another animal as a tool? This is common practice among the bottlenose dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia. These creative tool users nestle their beaks into living sea sponges before foraging the craggy sea floor. The sponge acts as a sort of nose cap, protecting the dolphins’ beaks from all the scratchy nooks and crannies where they go looking for food – one creature using a second to eat a third.

But what these dolphins do with the sponge is only half the story. Just as important is how they learn to do it. Sponging isn’t encoded in dolphin DNA; it’s a learned skill. More specifically, it’s something mothers teach their daughters. This is a process scientists refer to as cultural transmission.

Agriculture laid the foundations for modern human society. But humans are not the world’s only farmers.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the paleo diet, which encourages eating the way our ancestors did – or at least the way some people think they did.

Proponents of paleo claim – not uncontroversially – that agriculture was a disaster for the human digestive system. They aren’t the only ones critical of farming. Many scholars have argued that the transition to agriculture sparked the gradual demise of egalitarian social structures. On the other hand, modern society as we know it wouldn’t exist without agriculture. Books, museums, Spotify, video games – basically, everything you might love about life in civilization could not have come into being had we not settled the land.

Humans have decoupled sex from reproduction, and we aren’t the only ones.

We do it in bed or on tables, alone or in groups. We do it on beaches or against trees, in the morning or late at night. Sometimes we do it with people we love. And sometimes, we do it with people we hate.

Yup, you guessed it: it’s sex, an activity for which humans show remarkable enthusiasm. From masturbating to copulating, we do it all, and we do it with gusto. In fact, just about the only thing we don’t do when it comes to sex is have it for the sole purpose of making babies.

The primary driver of biological evolution is DNA.

Same same, but different. Different in degree, not in kind. However you want to put it, by now it should be clear: there’s much we share in common with other animals and just as much that sets us apart. Ask any self-respecting high schooler why that is, and you’ll probably get a clear answer. We’re similar because we evolved from the same early organisms. We’re different because we evolved along different tracks.

But what does that mean exactly? How did that work?

Human speech and language set us apart from other animals.

The process that enables you to understand these words is extremely complex. The mere fact that one human is able to string together words in such a way that you can understand them is a stunning feat, one unique to Homo sapiens.

At the heart of this act is a complex anatomical and neurological architecture. Without it, no human could generate the vast array of sounds necessary for human language. This architecture includes a highly innervated and versatile tongue, which descends past an intricately carved hyoid bone into a powerful larynx. The larynx, in turn, is connected to a nose, which is linked to the many other muscles of the face. And this entire apparatus can be manipulated at will, due to an extremely high degree of motor control. There’s no other animal on Earth with as sophisticated a biological basis for language.

Behavioral modernity in humans is marked by imagination, abstract thinking, and the ability to make art.

Physically speaking, there’s not much difference between you and a human being living on the African continent 200,000 years ago. Give them a haircut, hand them a trendy outfit, and they’d fit right in at your local café. Like you, they’d even have the anatomical ability to speak. What they wouldn’t have is language – not yet, anyway.

It took some time for language to develop after humans gained the biological ability to speak. About 130,000 years. What changed during that period wasn’t our DNA, but our culture. And it didn’t stop with language. Over time, our grasp of symbolism expanded even further, from the ability to understand words to the ability to create art.

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Worum geht es in The Book of Humans?

The Book of Humans (2018) is an accessible tour of evolutionary history. It illuminates both the many qualities we share with animals and the many others that set us apart. Incorporating the latest scientific discoveries from genetics and archaeology, it provides a thrilling compendium of the rich variety of life on Earth.

Wer The Book of Humans lesen sollte

People seeking a primer on evolutionary biology
Darwin enthusiasts
Animal lovers

Über den Autor

Adam Rutherford is a science writer, podcaster, and broadcaster. A regular BBC personality and frequent contributor to the Guardian, he is also the author of several books on human evolution. He holds a doctorate in genetics from University College London and is a popular speaker among both academic and lay audiences.

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