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The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
- Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
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The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
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Summary
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 child-rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, our languages, and science? The book tackles these issues by drawing on ideas from 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.
What listeners love about The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- G
- 07-06-23
Starts well then drops off
A really good start, interesting, insightful and then it becomes a very long drawn out repetition on one particular aspect for multiple unnecessary chapters.
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- Eoin Brennan
- 29-07-22
explains a lot.... nearly everything
really interesting.. brilliant...
author is convincing and never shoves the information down your throat
but there is a lot of information. I will be going again from the start.
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- Lee
- 29-06-22
Wow...
Anyone harbouring doubts as to evolutionary theory should hear this; those that retain those same doubts after listening to this should give up upon and all further research, because nothing short of divine intervention will sway them 😏
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Bryan
- 31-05-22
Great if you haven’t read the books referenced
There isn’t anything new in here but if you have read the main material referenced (the selfish gene, the rational optimist, anything by David Buss) then this is a fantastic filter of those ideas. If I read it 6 years ago, it would be a 5 star review but I didn’t actually learn anything new but that’s not the authors fault. The book is very well written and is much more digestible than something like The Selfish Gene for example.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Than
- 18-09-20
Seven Evolutionary Theories U Can't Say On Campus
So this book will obviously ruffle some feathers. And the writer acknowledges that. He explains throughout the book how his science is misrepresented by the general public, by detractors to the evolutionary psychological sciencies, etc. That out of the way this is an fascinating book about our species and the sexual dichotomy and hard-wiring we all have without realizing it. Looking at our species from an alien perspective isn't new, and the way the writer imagines a theoretical alien species is painfully typical, but when the known science is attached to the information it makes for an interesting self reflection of our species. There are some 'one might suppose' moments which can mostly be chalked up to pure speculation being professed as proven science, but he does go out of his way to say when something isn't known or is still being studied. I think most people will like this book and the people that will have a problem with it will stop an hour into it and explain everything they think the book 'must have been about'. It's similar to the book from a few years ago "Who We Are and How We Got Here" in how others could misuse the information (or use a misunderstood/falsified version of the data) for whatever agendas or manifestos they desperately want to be true.
So are we the first animal on Earth to have no prior wiring whatsoever, a being of pure free will? Or are we preprogrammed just following a script? Or something else? Give the book a listen and see what you think.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 27-08-19
FANTASTIC!! EVERYONE SHOULD EAR/READ
No more dogmas after reading this one! What began as a simply exercise of imagination, turned out to be so much more! Thank so much to Steve Stewart-Williams for this book!
4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- K
- 17-02-20
Wrong chapters.
The chapters are completely wrong. chapter 4 is strangely in the section "Chapter 6". I dont understand why someone wouldn't review it before posting it.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 30-09-21
wonderful!
great read! could definitely read again and again.
would recommend this book to anyone interested in such subjects
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Shidobu
- 17-12-22
This meme machine is ready to spread this meme.
This is effectively the only evolutionary psychology book you will ever need to read if you want a basic understanding of what the field is all about. Obviously, there is always more material to read, but if you want to understand the basics and be able to form an opinion on the field, this is a great place to start. Especially because it's coming from a person with no agenda beyond forming a good, nuanced argument in favor of the field's validity. If you are concerned that this is some Alt-Right dog whistle of a book, fear not. If you are concerned that this is some New Age mumbo jumbo, fear not. If you are concerned that this will undermine your view of humanity and why we are the way we are... this book will be worth the read.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rene De Paula Jr.
- 23-11-20
powerful ideas brillliantly communicated
this is exactly what I was looking for: a starting point for memetics and evolutionary psichology that is both accessible and engaging
1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- J. Pietersen
- 01-09-20
Long and thorough
At times a tad tedious ("in other words" is a dead giveaway), the arguments are nevertheless thorough and mostly convincing. I found the extraterrestrial approach somewhat silly, but it might just be me, and the catchy song at the end almost made up for it. Recommended.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 16-06-23
Amazing!
A thoroughly well reasoned and thoughtful book. As entertaining as it is enlightening!!! Listen to this book!!!
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- VikingParadigm LLC
- 15-05-23
Good Book
This is a really good book, it has given insights into many of the things that I already knew.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Chris Powell
- 16-02-23
Fascinating read
An interesting and fascinating book. Worth your time. Once you get the gist of the argument, it can be sometimes easy to infer where the author is going, but he still manages to surprise you on a regular basis. there were some arguments I did not agree with, but these were addressed later in the book. Some patience required 😄
I also like the delivery by the narrator.
Recommended.