The Artificial Ape

An intriguing book arguing that humans took control of their own evolution at a much earlier stage than is currently supposed by means of the invention of tools, fire and shelter as a way of modifying their biology. The author posits three systems within which we live: physics and inorganic chemistry, biology and technology. He contests Darwin's view and that of creationism equally, using the telling phrase 'survival of the weakest'. Without artificial aids we would not have made it; technology supersedes biology, although I was not convinced by the one-way nature of technology driving evolution - it is surely a reciprocal process. We have been constructing artificial environments now informing ourselves in artificial images for thousands of years, so there is no going back to nature since we are both product and producers of this third system of artificiality.