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Children Of Prometheus: The Accelerating Pace Of Human Evolution

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Christopher Wills puts to rest a common belief that humans, having mastered their environment, have brought their own evolution to a standstill, now exempted from the pressures of natural selection. Humans, through their manipulation of the environment both deliberate and unintended, have actually increased the pace of evolution, both their own and that of other animals. Wills brings the professional knowledge of population genetics to this subject to write a popular science book which will challenge the reader far more than many other popular science books.

He fills the beginning of the book with many insightful examples which hold the attention and educate the reader. Where we encounter more familiar examples, Wills takes the subject several steps deeper in a way which will keep more veteran science readers interested in addition to illuminating Wills' thesis. For example, with the malaria/sickle cell anemia phenomenon, he goes on to show many other patterns of balanced polymorphism and also elaborates on the role that the appearance of human agriculture has played in causing this phenomenon in the first place. His example of the Tibetans evolutionary adaptation to their environment truly fascinated me.

In the next part, he presents a thorough evolutionary account of the emergence of humans from Australopithecus, including useful comparisons with our great ape relatives and some special focus on our recently extinct closest relative, Neandertal. Far more than just a summary of human evolution 101, this section of the book demands the most attention out of the reader. In addition to providing the outline for human evolution, Wills takes the opportunity to introduce the reader to many in depth concepts of population genetics which play crucially into his thesis. Don't feel frustrated if you find yourself needing to reread chapters in this section, where the first part may have breezed by for you. You will miss a lot of Wills' thesis if you drop out at this point. I found the graphics in this section crucial to helping me understand, and I only wish the author and/or publisher had provided more.

Finally the last part presents the final unfolding of Wills' thesis bringing careful attention to the ongoing evolution of human mental capacities, in addition to a keen focus on cultural factors at work. Wills introduces the idea of "culturgen," E.O. Wilson's less popular competing synonym of Richard Dawkins' "meme" in describing interplay between culture and biology. This choice of terms proves apt, however, in that Wills' evolutionary thesis proves far more complex than the conceptual elegance of Dawkins' selfish gene theory.

Wills concentrates far more on population genetics rather than the individual gene. His interest here lies in the unexpressed genetic potential of an individual, in addition to the extended phenotype of expressed genes. He focusses far more on the population, environmental, cultural, developmental and greater genetic contexts in which formerly hidden genetic potential becomes expressed. Instead of natural selection granting a biological reprieve for the human species, it has instead selected for genetic diversity, both hidden and expressed, and Wills explores the ramifications of this. Where Wills' evolutionary outlook lacks the conceptual elegance of selfish gene and selfish meme theory, he more than makes up for it in dealing more directly and realistically with the actual complexities of human evolutionary realities.

This book stands as one of the more challenging and rewarding popular science books to deal with human evolution.

As an evolutionary biologist working on insects, I had turned to this book to help fill in some gaps in my conceptualization of how evolution and selection may be affecting humans today. But while I don't think this book is poorly written or of no merit, I had a hard time getting much from it. In fact, I got more from the review of the anthropological research regarding fossil discoveries than from any of Will's attempts at synthesis.

For me, the biggest flaw of the book is a lack of a true vision of what "evolution" actually MEANS in this context. As obvious or as simple as it sounds, there is never much discussion of this fundamentally key issue. Instead, examples and speculation are given that the gene pool of Homo sapiens is changing, and allele frequencies of many genes are undoubtedly different than they were millenia ago. It takes a whole book to make this one point, yet from there, the only synthesis Will can make is that because allele frequencies are changing, therefore selection MUST be acting on them. Mostly speculative with little in the way of support, his treatment of an interesting topic just falls short. In other words, it's all bun and no burger. It may still be worth reading, as it is written very clearly and without the pitfalls of scientific jargon...making it a brief read. But I think you could do much better than to use this as your source for intellectual inquiry...I'm going to look around from something better.

This book isn't entirely worthless -- but it illustrates the tendency of scientific specialists to think that they're experts on everything. Wills not only professes to know evolutionary biology: he knows everything else as well.

Except that he doesn't.

To avoid tedium, I'll just give one example. While talking about the genetic isolation of the European Neandertal, Wills mentions by way of analogy a "mysterious" people who speak a "mysterious" language called Ladin. How mysterious!

Wills even tells us that these origins are very mysterious.

But there's really nothing mysterious about them at all. Ladin is a Romance language, no more mysterious than French and Italian. As the name should indicate, Ladin comes from Latin. Duh.

And so science marches on!

First, it is a very good book that covers a lot of material that is of interest to evolutionists and eugenicists. That is, 95% of the material is not new but it is useful for those interested in the subject matter. So like many books in this genre it has two purposes: to establish Dr. Will's knowledge of the subject matter and make it appear to be objective and empirical, while at the same time promoting a political agenda that falls into the abyss of the utopian dream of universal egalitarianism. While he intermittently lashes out at nationalists and religious fanatics as if they have no right whatsoever for holding the views that they do, he then demands that all human races be forced to intermarry so that we are all mixed up genetically. He then claims that we will accelerate the evolutionary process, but he doesn't really explain to what purpose.

So the really fascinating reading of this book is the inherent contradictions, deceptions, and moral positioning Dr. Wills uses to try and advance what is in essence his own form or nationalism and religious fanaticism. That is the nation as one global nation under totalitarian control by the egalitarian elite, and the religious fanaticism of Marxism, universalism, socialism, or whatever name you attach to this neo-Marxist lot of academics.

Before I take apart this sophomoric proposal for universal brotherhood, let me lay out what the basic premise is: When subspecies (human races) that are genetically different begin to interbreed, the results are "profound" and "generally positive." Keep this simple message in mind as you read this review. But first let me point out at the beginning just a few reasons why it is nonsensical.

First, it is based on the premise that different races are in some real way genetically different, a premise that Wills repeatedly denies to be true throughout the book. For example, he claims that human races are now interbreeding and we are also [all] getting smarter. The fact is for example that if sub-Saharan Blacks with an average IQ of 70 were to interbreed with Ashkenazi Jews with an average IQ of 117, the offspring would in fact be somewhere between the two groups; somewhere around an average of IQ of 90! This IS "profound" but it is hardly "generally positive!" Those offspring are more likely to end up in jail or on welfare than the offspring of the pure Ashkenazi Jew. ...