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Transcendence
- How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
- Narrated by: Gaia Vince
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
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Transcendence
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Summary
How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny
What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements - fire, language, beauty, and time - our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.
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What listeners say about Transcendence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- RS
- 21-12-22
Great book but unfortunately poor recording
An amazing book full of fascinating facts and information. A real eye opener. The story telling is compelling, and the author is tells the story in an animated and engaging way. I loved it.
Unfortunately, the recording is not great as there are a lot of unpleasant mouth noises that really distract from the content (particularly if you have misophonia). Some more careful editing and quality control could have really improved this as an audio book. If you are misophonic or sound sensitive, I recommend reading rather than listening!
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Lukas Daalder
- 28-12-20
The first half is good, the second half not so
Fire and Language make sense (although ‘writing’ is arguably much mire important than language), but once you get to beauty and time, the author fails and starts to list numerous examples that are either not very relevant, or not very solid to begin with.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Kurt Leyendecker
- 01-10-20
Far too much bias and unsupported conclusions
This is a thought provoking book; however, from the very beginning a was concerned that the author was drawing unsupported conclusions from the studies and research she sighted. This in and of itself did not challenge the veracity of the conclusions but did little to support them either. In the end (literally, the last 10% of the book), Gaia unleashed her abject hate of conservatives serving up ridiculous assertions based on cherry picked research that supported her viewpoint. Very disappointing - this could have been a great book, but now I find myself wondering whether much of her assertions throughout the first 90% are equally suspect.
2 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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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Larry Conroy
- 09-06-22
Cannot recommend this book
This is a terrible book. It is non-stop pontificating of half truths supported by cherry picked data. It is emblematic of the recent non-rigorous psuedo-science. I cannot recommend this to anyone.
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
- Anonymous User
- 18-03-22
Tarique Perera
One of the best books I have read. And I have read many. Highest compliment I can make.
1 person found this helpful