From Apes to Cyborgs: New Perspectives on Human Evolution 3030365212, 9783030365219

Table of contents :
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Contents
Chapter 1: Our Deep History: A Short Overview
1.1 The Human Past
1.2 Descended from the Apes?
1.3 Our Place in Time and Space
Chapter 2: Human Biodiversity and Close Encounters
2.1 Sapiens: The African Origins
2.2 Sapiens the Conqueror
2.3 Neanderthals
2.4 Denisovans
2.5 Hobbits
2.6 Homo naledi and Homo luzonensis
2.7 Races and Racism
Chapter 3: The March for Hegemony
3.1 Tools, Fire and the Environment
3.2 Once a Player, Always a Player
3.3 Disappearance of the Neanderthals
3.4 Man´s Best Friend
3.5 Self-Domestication of Homo sapiens
3.6 Last Act
Chapter 4: The Naked Ape Dresses Up
4.1 The Naked Ape
4.2 Coats, Shoes and Shelter
4.3 Dress, Shame and Symbols
Chapter 5: The Evolution of Woman
5.1 Giving Birth: A Risky Business
5.2 Monogamy or Polygamy?
5.3 Taming the Female
5.4 Sexual Selection: The Role of Women
Chapter 6: Work, Leisure and Learning
6.1 Growing Up Too Fast?
6.2 Art and Entertainment
6.3 Teaching and Learning
6.4 Trust, Gossip and Shared Beliefs
6.5 Work, Leisure and Learning Today
Chapter 7: Food for Body and Mind
7.1 Ritual Food
7.2 Vegetarian or Carnivorous? Omnivorous
7.3 Farmers and Breeders
7.4 Us and Them
7.5 Turning Our Genes On and Off
Chapter 8: Diseases and Grief
8.1 Disease and Therapies from the Past
8.2 Diseases of the Present: A Possible Mismatch
8.3 Funerary Rites
8.4 The First Hierarchical Societies
8.5 Bones, Tombs and Relics
Chapter 9: Brain and Mind
9.1 Brain and Mind in Deep Time
9.2 Thinking of Thinking
9.3 Modelling and Imagining
Chapter 10: Imaginary Worlds
10.1 New Realities
10.2 Overcoming Perceptual Barriers
10.3 Excess of Representation: The Economic Sphere
10.4 Symmetric and Asymmetric Warfare
Chapter 11: Homo Oeconomicus
11.1 When It All Began
11.2 What Is Money?
11.3 Goods and Services
11.4 The Private Accumulation of Wealth
11.5 The Destruction of Collective Wealth
Chapter 12: Humans of the Future
12.1 Digital Networks
12.2 Social Networks, Digital Games and Search Engines
12.3 Market-Driven Digital Gurus
12.4 Socio-Economic Networks
12.5 Social Networks of Knowledge
12.6 Global Networks and Territorial Networks
12.7 Shrinking the Brain
12.8 Power and Pleasure
12.9 Truth and Post-truth
12.10 Intelligent Weapons and Preventive War
12.11 Transhumanism
12.12 Posthumanism
12.13 Deep Neural Networks
12.14 Tamed by Intelligent Machines
References