Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to
survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even
basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or
avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced
ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex
institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a
vast range of diverse environments. What has enabled us to dominate
the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually
helpless as lone individuals? This book shows that the secret of
our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our
collective brains--on the ability of human groups to socially
interconnect and learn from one another over generations. Drawing
insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile
hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the
human genome, Joseph Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains
have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our
biology. Our early capacities for learning from others produced
many cultural innovations, such as fire, cooking, water containers,
plant knowledge, and projectile weapons, which in turn drove the
expansion of our brains and altered our physiology, anatomy, and
psychology in crucial ways. Later on, some collective brains
generated and recombined powerful concepts, such as the lever,
wheel, screw, and writing, while also creating the institutions
that continue to alter our motivations and perceptions. Henrich
shows how our genetics and biology are inextricably interwoven with
cultural evolution, and how culture-gene interactions launched our
species on an extraordinary evolutionary trajectory. Tracking clues
from our ancient past to the present, The Secret of Our Success
explores how the evolution of both our cultural and social natures
produce a collective intelligence that explains both our species'
immense success and the origins of human uniqueness.
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