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Transcendence

How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time

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Transcendence

By: Gaia Vince
Narrated by: Gaia Vince
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About this listen

How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny

What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements - fire, language, beauty, and time - our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.

©2020 Gaia Vince (P)2020 Penguin Audio Anthropology Biological Sciences Biology Civilization Evolution Evolution & Genetics Science Social Sciences World Human Brain

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All stars
Most relevant  
The accuracy, sensitivity and honesty of the author is refreshing and inspiring The storyteller is not afraid to speak the truth, however manages to maintain a sense of awe , wonder, positivity and hope for the future.

A great flowing history of humankind.

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An amazing book full of fascinating facts and information. A real eye opener. The story telling is compelling, and the author is tells the story in an animated and engaging way. I loved it.

Unfortunately, the recording is not great as there are a lot of unpleasant mouth noises that really distract from the content (particularly if you have misophonia). Some more careful editing and quality control could have really improved this as an audio book. If you are misophonic or sound sensitive, I recommend reading rather than listening!

Great book but unfortunately poor recording

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Pretty great throughout although some parts are slightly weaker but would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to know where we’ve come from and where we could go next

Great non-fiction told through story

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Fire and Language make sense (although ‘writing’ is arguably much mire important than language), but once you get to beauty and time, the author fails and starts to list numerous examples that are either not very relevant, or not very solid to begin with.

The first half is good, the second half not so

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