Transcendence

Subtitled 'how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty and time', this highly readable account of biological and cultural evolution characterises humans as the most successful species on earth representing a 'planet-altering force of nature' now recognised in the geological term Anthropocene. It is not wholly true to argue that we determine the course of our own destiny – Will Durant observes that civilisation exists by geological consent - and an element missing from the book is the cyclical nature of civilisations in terms of rise and decline. The main evolutionary factors are genes, environment and culture, the latter becoming prevalent in the course of time. There is an element of a triumphal march in the overarching narrative, which struck me as hubristic, although the author's argument that we are further transforming our species into a superorganism, which she calls 'Homni' is an interesting one - in this context, the meaning of transcendence is socio-biological, and there is no mention of a spiritual dimension of reality nor of the danger that our cleverness is outstripping our wisdom as 'intelligent designers' developing ourselves into cyborgs - there are downsides and challenges involved in technologies such as CRISPR, one of the latest manifestations of precision engineering language terms of snipping and editing that does not reflect the complex reality and is an extension of the mechanistic mindset. The superorganism metaphor could potentially be very useful as it suggests a sophisticated degree of mutuality and cooperation which have now become an evolutionary imperative. Another missing element is feeling - the principal developments described are technological without deep consideration of the human element, although this is acknowledged to some extent in the final chapter when the author reflects on social mistakes as a 'fault in humanity's cultural algorithm', which can also be described in terms of discourse of evil and the shadow - I did, however, appreciate the sentence on the final page that it is 'only by recognising and embracing our shared humanity on our one living planet will we achieve a good, liveable Anthropocene.'