Genesis, Edward O. Wilson
Genesis, Edward O. Wilson
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Genesis
The Deep Origin of Societies

Author: Edward O. Wilson

Narrator: Jonathan Hogan

Unabridged: 3 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 03/19/2019


Synopsis

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 seventeen?among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge- dwelling shrimp?have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation. Whether writing about midges who "dance about like acrobats" or schools of anchovies who protectively huddle "to appear like a gigantic fish," or proposing that human society owes a debt of gratitude to "postmenopausal grandmothers" and "childless homosexuals," Genesis is a pithy yet path-breaking work of evolutionary theory, braiding twenty-first-century scientific theory with the lyrical biological and humanistic observations for which Wilson is known.

About Edward O. Wilson

Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he was a professor emeritus at Harvard University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will

Within groups, selfish individuals win against altruists, but groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. So when Benjen Stark throws a defeated Jon Snow onto his horse and sacrifices himself to an onslaught by a crazed zombie horde, it is an action that is advantageous to House Stark.......more

Goodreads review by Ryan

There exists within evolutionary theory a deep contradiction, one that Charles Darwin noticed back in the nineteenth century. The problem is this: how can evolution by natural selection account for altruistic behavior that benefits the group at the expense of the individual? The standard view of natu......more

Goodreads review by Jim

Interesting, but he uses a lot of technical jargon without needing to & often uses citations in a way that confused matters for me. His phrasing is often awkward & he's trying to fit too much information into this short of a book. His first chapter, "The Search For Genesis" was very thin, but he rea......more