The Ape that Understood the Universe

Author: Steve Stewart-Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108776035
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
The Ape that Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world: the human animal. It opens with a question: How would an alien scientist view our species? What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behavior, our altruistic tendencies, and our culture? The book tackles these issues by drawing on two major schools of thought: evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory. The guiding assumption is that humans are animals, and that like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes. At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture - and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right. This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we're but a tiny, fleeting fragment. Featuring a new foreword by Michael Shermer.

The Ape that Understood the Universe

Author: Steve Stewart-Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108425046
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Book Description
Uses evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory to explain the mysteries of the human mind to an alien scientist.

Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life

Author: Steve Stewart-Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139490990
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
If you accept evolutionary theory, can you also believe in God? Are human beings superior to other animals, or is this just a human prejudice? Does Darwin have implications for heated issues like euthanasia and animal rights? Does evolution tell us the purpose of life, or does it imply that life has no ultimate purpose? Does evolution tell us what is morally right and wrong, or does it imply that ultimately 'nothing' is right or wrong? In this fascinating and intriguing book, Steve Stewart-Williams addresses these and other fundamental philosophical questions raised by evolutionary theory and the exciting new field of evolutionary psychology. Drawing on biology, psychology and philosophy, he argues that Darwinian science supports a view of a godless universe devoid of ultimate purpose or moral structure, but that we can still live a good life and a happy life within the confines of this view.

Artificial Intimacy

Author: Rob Brooks
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231553854
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
What happens when the human brain, which evolved over eons, collides with twenty-first-century technology? Machines can now push psychological buttons, stimulating and sometimes exploiting the ways people make friends, gossip with neighbors, and grow intimate with lovers. Sex robots present the humanoid face of this technological revolution—yet although it is easy to gawk at their uncanniness, more familiar technologies based in artificial intelligence and virtual reality are insinuating themselves into human interactions. Digital lovers, virtual friends, and algorithmic matchmakers help us manage our feelings in a world of cognitive overload. Will these machines, fueled by masses of user data and powered by algorithms that learn all the time, transform the quality of human life? Artificial Intimacy offers an innovative perspective on the possibilities of the present and near future. The evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks explores the latest research on intimacy and desire to consider the interaction of new technologies and fundamental human behaviors. He details how existing artificial intelligences can already learn and exploit human social needs—and are getting better at what they do. Brooks combines an understanding of core human traits from evolutionary biology with analysis of how cultural, economic, and technological contexts shape the ways people express them. Beyond the technology, he asks what the implications of artificial intimacy will be for how we understand ourselves.

Almost Everyone's Guide to Science

Author: John Gribbin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300084603
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Discusses the major issues in science, including the structure of particles within the atom, origins of species, and the birth of the universe.

Evolutionary Psychology

Author: Lance Workman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107044642
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 565

Book Description
Third edition of the classic undergraduate psychology textbook, entirely updated to combine traditional and cutting-edge research and additional pedagogical features.

Dear Universe

Author: Florence Gonsalves
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316436747
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
A wildly witty and deeply profound chronicle of teenage anxiety and yearning, perfect for fans of Jesse Andrews and Robyn Schneider. It's senior year, and Chamomile Myles has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to prom, torturous college applications, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father's terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun-and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her worlds--and helps her open up a new road between them. Dear Universe is the dazzling follow-up to Florence Gonsalves's debut, Love and Other Carnivorous Plants, hailed by School Library Journal as "a must-have sharp, powerful, and witty immersion into the complexities of . . . mental health."

Inflativity the Origin of Time

Author: Kevin Jonathan Warne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780993295102
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
Inflativity is a groundbreaking new theory of universal 4D inflation that solves many of the fundamental problems currently existing in modern Physics. The reasoning follows from simple fundamental principles and develops one's thorough understanding and the revelatory implications. Requiring only a basic understanding of Physics, one is taken on an amazing journey that ultimately leads to a full explanation of the origin of time. Along the way we solve some of the eternal questions such as: Why is the speed of light always constant? What really is gravity? Does dark matter actually exist? How can particles behave like waves? Does God play dice? The conclusion amounts to a compelling new insight into the very nature of reality.

Planet of the Apes and Philosophy

Author: John Huss
Publisher: Open Court
ISBN: 0812698274
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
What makes humans different from other animals, what humans are entitled to do to other species, whether time travel is possible, what limits should be placed on science and technology, the morality and practicality of genetic engineering—these are just some of the philosophical problems raised by Planet of the Apes. Planet of the Apes and Philosophy looks at all the deeper issues involved in the Planet of the Apes stories. It covers the entire franchise, from Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel Monkey Planet to the successful 2012 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The chapters reflect diverse points of view, philosophical, religious, and scientific. The ethical relations of humans with animals are explored in several chapters, with entertaining and incisive observations on animal intelligence, animal rights, and human-animal interaction. Genetic engineering is changing humans, animals, and plants, raising new questions about the morality of such interventions. The scientific recognition that humans and chimps share 99 percent of their genes makes a future in which non-human animals acquire greater importance a distinct possibility. Planet of the Apes is the most resonant of all scientific apocalypse myths.

Evolutionary Psychology

Author: David Buss
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317345746
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Book Description
This book examines human psychology and behavior through the lens of modern evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ne w Science of the Mind, 5/e provides students with the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology, and applies them to empirical research on the human mind. Content topics are logically arrayed, starting with challenges of survival, mating, parenting, and kinship; and then progressing to challenges of group living, including cooperation, aggression, sexual conflict, and status, prestige, and social hierarchies. Students gain a deep understanding of applying evolutionary psychology to their own lives and all the people they interact with.