The Ape that Understood the Universe

Posted on 02 November 2018 by Steve Stewart-Williams

The Ape that Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world the human animal It opens with a question How would an alien scientist view our species What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behavior, our child rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, languages, and science The book tackles these issues by drawing on ideas from two major schools of thought evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory The guiding assumption is that humans are animals, and that like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we re but a tiny, fleeting fragment. New Download The Ape that Understood the Universe author Steve Stewart-Williams For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Behavior is an interesting field to explore be it human or animal I read Sapiens and Homo Deus sometime back and liked them for how the books traced the history of how we Sapiens got to where we are I very recently read the brilliant Behave by Robert Sapolsky, which is fardetailed science writing The Ape that understood the universe was a good book to read shortly after While Behave explores the genesis of individual...The Ape That Understood the Universe, the second book written by associate professor of psychology Steve Stewart Williams, takes a look at evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory in an effort to explain how and why humans evolved Paying particular attention to the way the mind and culture evolve, the author writes a witty and fascinating account of these topics Written in a casual, conversational style, this allows it to be accessible to those who have no scientific knowledge The Ape That Understood the Universe, the second book written by associate professor of psychology Steve Stewart Williams, takes a look at evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory in an effort to explain how and why humans evolved Paying particular attention to the way the mind and culture evolve, the author writes a witty and fascinating account of these topics Written in a casual, conversational style, this allows it to be accessible to those who have no scientific knowledge whatsoever Make no mistake this is a challenging read I learned a great deal and found myself totally engrossed from the first page.However, some parts of the book ramble a bit, and the author hammers home his points over and over again, so it did get a little repetitive at times That said, I particularly enjoyed the ruminations on the nature vs nurture debate, ...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here I read long ago The Naked Ape by William Norris Didn t everyone interested in the sciences of evolution read it And I have since read a lot of scientific papers on anthropology, evolution of species, neurology and human brain, etc I m very interested by all these topics So I loved reading this one.One could say that this book is divided into two large parts the nature innate , first, and the nurture culture or memes , second Forget the law of the strongest No, don t forget it, but I read long ago The Naked Ape by William Norris Didn t everyone interested in the sciences of evolution read it And I have since read a lot of scientific papers on anthropology, evolution of species, neurology and human brain, etc I m very interested by all these topics So I loved reading this one.One could say that this book is divided into two large parts the nature innate , first, and the nurture culture or memes , second Forget the law of the strongest No, don t forget it, but add the law of the kindness to it Because both are necessary for our survival in the human s world.Here is its Table of Contents Acknowledgments xi1 The Alien s Challenge 12 Darwin Comes to Mind 153 The Se...Note I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and Cambridge University Press in exchange for an honest review This book is about the strangest animal in the world the animal that s reading these words and the animal that wrote them the human animalThis is how the book starts, strong and to the point totally loved it As evolutionary biology shaped humans physically, this published study emphasises how evolutionary psychology shaped our behaviour.Even though I really liked it as aNote I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and Cambridge University Press in exchange for an honest review This book is about the strangest animal in the world the animal that s reading these words and the animal that wrote them the human animalThis is how the book starts, strong and to the point totally loved it As evolutionary biology shaped humans physically, this published study emphasises how evolutionary psychology shaped our behaviour.Even though I really liked it as a whole, because it opened my eyes to lots of interesting things and made me curious to findabout evolution in general and evolutionary psychology in particular, there were several dislikes also interesting fact note how the cons are much easier to state ...The Ape That Understood The Universe starts off with a fascinating and unique notion Because we re so used to being human, and to living with humans, we sometimes don t notice what a peculiar creature we are As a corrective, Iwant to begin by looking at our species from a new perspective We ll be looking at our species through the eyes of a hypothetical, hyperintelligent alien It is truly a delight and a lot of fun to read what an alien would say about us in regards to our mind, behavior and The Ape That Understood The Universe starts off with a fascinating and unique notion Because we re so used to being human, and to living with humans, we sometimes don t notice what a peculiar creature we are As a corrective, I want to begin b...Excellent combination of old and recent discoveries on the evolution of the human species, not from the anthropological point of view, but based on sociobiology gene s eye perspective and evolutionary psychology meme s eye perspective We learn how and why we have come to dominate our planet and how the inside genetic and outside social and cultural history of our evolution explains why we do what we do in everyday life.The author makes interesting, instructive and amusing comparisons Excellent combination of old and recent discoveries on the evolution of the human species, not from the anthropological point of view, but based on sociobiology gene s eye perspective and evolutionary psychology meme s eye perspective We learn how and why we have come to dominate our planet and how the inside genetic and outside social and cultural history of our evolution explains why we do what we do in everyday life.The author makes interesting, instructive and amusing comparisons with the plant and animal world in general and with mammals in particular He sometimes presents things from an outside point of view, the one that could have a visitor from another planet This helps us to understand what a strange beast is the human being.1 The Alien s Challenge2 D...Interesting look at human behavior Full details on the how s and the whys things may be the way they are A new look at evolution and the concepts of life A true who came firstwhat, when, how Interesting l...I first found Steve Stewart Williams on twitter He posted this thread of examples of animals previously thought to be unable to pass the mirror test or the ability to display capability for the theory of mind, doing just that His tweet game is on point, and I wanted , so I got his book Its as advertised, really A conversational yet fairly in depth exploration of evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory Often takes the perspective of an alien scientist s view of our I first found Steve Stewart Williams on twitter He posted thi...I received a copy of this book from NetGalley That was interesting I always find myself on the fence when it comes to nature vs nurture , to be honest, because it can be presented in very deterministic ways in which I don t find my place anyway a.k.a my instinct to pass on my genes is close to nil, and I m definitely not a poster child for maternal behaviours So, I was a little worried at first But I needn t be, because while the author is definitely on the side of nature rather thanI received a copy of this book from NetGalley That was interesting I always find myself on the fence when it comes to nature vs nurture , to be honest, because it can be presented in very deterministic ways in which I don t find my place anyway a.k.a my instinct to pass on my genes is close to ...It s an easy, full of information, and very amusing book Thank you Steve Stewart William for the effort

02 November 2018

Steve Stewart-Williams