Customer Reviews

Humankind: A Brief History

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This book deals with how mankind has tried to define humankind. Our we human because our body is different from other animals? But apes are so close to us when it comes to DNA. Because we have a soul or mind? Can we even prove those things exist? Because we have culture and works of art? But don't machines now write stories and don't chimps paint?
Will we ever find something to define us as humans when we don't even know what being human means? I enjoyed this book and, funny enough as a manga fan, have to compare it to _Ghost In The Shell_ and _AppleSeed_ in the questions it asks.

This book is not quite what I thought it was when I purchased it. The jacket art shows a variety of hominid forms as well as some futuristic machine forms, so I thought the book was a compact anthropology of the genus with, perhaps, some interesting speculation upon the future. What the book is instead is a philosophy in which Fernandez-Armesto cites his thesis that "humanity" as a concept can no longer be defined in unique terms: toolmaker, language user, culture creator--many species exhibit these traits, ergo, humanity is not so special after all.

Well, I never thought humanity was so special, but I have always been able to recognize a human from other higher mammals. Matters of degree do not lend themselves easily to the need for hard edged truth, but matters of degree are what separate us from other higher mammals and futuristic machine intelligences, and matters of degree are enough.

The book is worth a read once you understand what it is; Fernandez-Armesto cites many useful historical references. I would say, however, that there is one human trait he failed to explore, and that is evil. I have never observed deliberate evil in other animal forms, only humanity.