Audiobook3 hours
Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies
Written by Edward O. Wilson
Narrated by Jonathan Hogan
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
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.
More audiobooks from Edward O. Wilson
Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Human Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meaning of Human Existence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales from the Ant World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Social Conquest of Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins of Creativity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Genesis
Related audiobooks
Life: The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Human: A Theory of Ontogeny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meme Machine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Origins of Creativity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Evolution: What Everyone Needs to Know Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ancestors in Our Genome: The New Science of Human Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Taste for the Beautiful: The Evolution of Attraction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evolutionary Psychology II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Evolutionary Psychology I: The Science of Human Nature: The Science of Human Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genome: The Autobiography of a Species In 23 Chapters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEver Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Science & Mathematics For You
Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thinking in Systems: A Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salt: A World History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Genesis
Rating: 4.135714277142857 out of 5 stars
4/5
70 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good connection and research on how some species develop altruism for the greater good! How these genes regulated and what is a cause and effect on survival.
From insects to humans.
For development of brain, language, biological change! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seems paradoxical that the general focus of the book it”s not social behavior of species but main steps toward it, loosing in the way the fact, that cooperation is substantial to cell’s integration as organs in the body: or that electrical shocks in some fish are sort of concerted action executed by cells localized in different body places. The example of the dolphin and anchovies or the one for the birds or the locusts all remember that cooperation is an intrinsic cell characteristic, and what lies below is some sort of communication. But the book”s title is great.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked the material, but Hogan's voice tends to drone so I had to rewind a few times.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was enthralled by this book. I got to see the wide ranging ideas of a noteworthy biologist and his approach to the complexity of the animal kingdom. Wilson organizes evolution into six transitions:1. Origin of Life.2. The invention of complex cells.3. The invention of sexual reproduction (DNA & multiplication of species).4. The origin of organisms composed of multiple cells.5. The origin of societies.6. The origin of language.The idea or process of altruism is a crucial factor in evolution. With so many species abounding allows scientists to better codify the process of reconstructing what happens in evolution. But eusociality is not a common outcome, where the individual organisms allow themselves certain different roles of living such as bees and wasps. Natural selection shows us how various species compete and move to possibly more cooperation (or not). The aspect of violence is prominent within higher mammals, particularly humans and sows that nature is not really gentle. But Wilson closes with the virtue of storytelling among all human societies.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of the things I like best about reading E.O. Wilson's books is his ongoing willingness and excitement to engage with new and recent scholarship and discovery. He's not just repeating the same ideas he wrote about forty years ago: he's revising them and updating them based on current research, and also putting long-held views in conversation with the new data.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nice concise treatment with a deeper discussion of the tension between individual selfishness and group cooperation. Lots of examples from the insect world that is Wilson's expertise.