Social Evolution

Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Genesis demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least 17 - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation.

In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, a group of anthropologists and archaeologists that included a young French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uncovered a prehuman skull. The find quickly became known around the world as Peking Man and was acclaimed as the missing link between erect hunting apes and our Cro-Magnon ancestors. It also became a provocative piece of evidence in the roiling debate over creationism versus evolution.

In Life Finds a Way, biologist Andreas Wagner reveals the deep symmetry between innovation in biological evolution and human cultural creativity. Rarely is either a linear climb to perfection - instead, "progress" is typically marked by a sequence of peaks, plateaus, and pitfalls. For instance, in Picasso's 40-some iterations of Guernica, we see the same combination of small steps, incessant reshuffling, and large, almost reckless, leaps that characterize the way evolution transformed a dinosaur's grasping claw into a condor's soaring wing.

In his acclaimed Cosmosapiens, renowned scientist John Hands looked back on how we humans evolved from the origin of the universe to the present day. Building on that work, The Future of Humankind: Why We Should Be Optimistic looks ahead to our ultimate destiny. Listeners embark on a fascinating journey in which Hands evaluates current major predictions for our future in three categories—extinction, survival, and transformation—before making his own unique and astonishing forecast.

Wer hätte sich vor wenigen Jahren vorstellen können, dass Krieg wieder zu einer zentralen Bedrohung unserer Welt werden könnte? Was bringt Menschen dazu, andere Menschen zu töten? Dazu müssen wir nach den evolutionären Wurzeln von Gewalt und Aggression forschen und deren Wucherungen durch die menschliche Geschichte hindurch rekonstruieren. Die drei Autoren verbinden anhand von Fallgeschichten die Erkentnisse aus Archäologie, Evolutionärer Anthropologie und den Religions- und Geschichtswissenschaften, um in dieser Menschheitsgeschichte der Gewalt aufzuzeigen, unter welchen Bedingungen es zu Krieg, Mord und Totschlag kommt.

Drawing on insights from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences, Michelle Baddeley explores contexts in which behavior is driven by the herd. She analyzes the rational vs nonrational and cognitive vs emotional forces involved, and she investigates why herding only sometimes works out well. With new perspectives on followers, leaders, and the pros and cons of herd behavior, Baddeley shines vivid light on human behavior in the context of our ever-more-connected world.

În Bonobo și ateul, Frans de Waal folosește cunoștințele dobândite în zeci de ani de cercetare a primatelor, și a speciei bonobo în particular, pentru a aprofunda cu ochiul fin al eseistului cultural, versat în istoria artei și în filozofie, probleme fundamentale ale naturii umane. Care este izvorul moralității și ce transformări a suferit aceasta pe parcursul evoluției? Putem fi buni și altruiști și în lipsa constrângerilor religiei? Este simțul moral apanajul omului, sau e prezent şi la speciile de maimuțe cu care ne înrudim?

Five years ago, I asked myself: Was I living or just existing? This led me on a journey of deep research and discovery, both of the outer world around me and my own inner world. I realized a lack of understanding leads to a lack of fulfillment and purpose in life, so this audiobook is an honest assessment of hard-hitting questions about beliefs and traditions we as a species have held for eons.

The Social Paradox has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.Why do people who have so much—leading comfortable lives filled with unprecedented freedom, choice, and abundance—often feel so unhappy and unfulfilled? This phenomenon is a defining paradox of our time and one we endlessly seek to solve. In The Social Paradox, psychologist William von Hippel argues that we need to think about this problem in a new way. By changing our perspective, we might finally see the solution, bringing us greater happiness and more satisfying relationships.

The human brain acquired its present genetic capacity, which flowered in language, a thousand centuries ago. Our brains evolved from this technique of mapping meaning to symbolic sounds which has made our species dominant over all others on Earth - culture. However culture is a two-edged sword that can defy natural selection when the childlike literal thinking from a forgotten symbolic understanding of traditional culture prevents the change in our way of life, urgently required by our environment for our species to survive.

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

Descubre y Experimenta la revolución de los algoritmos personalizados y descubre cómo están redefiniendo nuestra relación con el contenido en línea. Sumérgete en el mundo de los microinfluencers, quienes están transformando el juego del marketing digital, y explora cómo las redes sociales están siendo utilizadas como herramientas para fomentar la inclusión y la diversidad en una amplia gama de comunidades.

Looking to delve deeper into the history of the Balkans? This insightful book explores the complex factors that have led to the region's ongoing conflict and division.

This classic essay from Jon Krakauer is now available as an unabridged audiobook download. This essay is also included in the Classic Krakauer collection. From the best-selling author of Missoula and Into the Wild: a selection of the singular investigative journalism that made Krakauer famous, covering topics from avalanches on Mt. Everest to a volcano in Washington state; from a wilderness therapy program for teens to an extraordinary cave in New Mexico so unearthly that is used by NASA to better understand Mars.

Violation of biological command has been the failure of social man. Vertebrates though we may be, we have ignored the law of equal opportunity since civilization's earliest hours. Sexually reproducing beings though we are, we pretend today that the law of inequality does not exist. And enlightened though we may be, while we pursue the unattainable we make impossible the realizable.

Los genes no son los responsables de la desigualdad pero llevan impresas las marcas que ha dejado a lo largo de nuestra historia. La creciente desigualdad en el siglo XXI es un grave problema social y sus causas y consecuencias provocan debates y controversias que implican desde agentes sociales y políticos hasta economistas. En Desigualdad, Carles Lalueza-Fox ofrece una visión totalmente nueva de este tema al examinar las huellas genéticas dejadas por la desigualdad en los humanos a lo largo de su historia.

Ah, the mysteries of life. A confidence man scams billions. Politicians fear talking about issues. Marriage is sweet, divorce is sour. This is the human condition...But why is this the human condition? That's what this book is about. It's about why we humans think the way we do.

Beginning with America’s first newspaper, investigative reporting has provided journalism with its most significant achievements and challenging controversies. In The Evolution of American Investigative Journalism, James L. Aucoin provides listeners with the first comprehensive history of investigative journalism.

Here again, I will be gracing another major subject with my irreproachable wisdom and my brain-flipping intelligence, in this audiobook. I doubt that there is a single evolutionist who can match wits with me because I am a student of life and of nature. My own self-administered studies are far greater than those that can be offered by universities and schools (not to degrade the importance of them for most people) or by attaining educational degrees and credentials (also very important for the right people).

There is an invisible army of people deep inside the world’s biggest and best-known companies, pushing for safer and more responsible practices. They are trying to prevent the next Rana Plaza factory collapse, the next Deepwater Horizon explosion, the next Foxconn labor abuses. Obviously, they don’t always succeed. Christine Bader was one of those people. Using her story as its skeleton, Bader weaves in the stories of other “Corporate Idealists” working inside some of the world's biggest and best-known companies.