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What happens now that human population has outpaced biological natural selection? Two leading scientists reveal how we became who we are - and what we might become.. When we think of evolution, the image that likely comes to mind is the iconic, straight-forward image of a primate morphing into a human being. Yet random events have played huge roles in determining the evolutionary histories of everything from lobsters to humans. However, random genetic novelties are most likely to "stick" in small populations. It is mathematically unlikely to happen in large ones. With our enormous and seemingly inexorably expanding population, humanity has fallen under the influence of the famous (or infamous) "bell curve." This revelatory new book explores what the future of our species could hold, while simultaneously revealing what we didnt become - and what we wont become. A cognitively unique species, our actions fall on a bell curve as well. Individuals may be saintly or evil, narrow-minded or visionary. But it is possible not just for the species, but for a person to be all of these things - even in a single day. We all fall somewhere within the giant hyperspace of the human condition that these curves describe. The Accidental Homo Sapiens shows readers that though humanity now exists on this bell curve, we are far from a stagnant species. Tattersall and DeSalle reveal how biological evolution in modern humans has given way to a cultural dynamic that is unlike anything else the Earth has ever witnessed, and that will keep life interesting - perhaps sometimes too interesting - for as long as we exist on this planet.



About the Author

Ian Tattersall

Ian Tattersall, a Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, is a paleoanthropologist and primate biologist of long experience. He has conducted fieldwork in places as diverse as Yemen, Vietnam, and Madagascar, and besides being a prolific contributor to the technical literature in these areas, he has written widely for the public on topics ranging from the biology of the lemurs of Madagascar, and the natural history of wine, to the evolution of humankind. His current laboratory research involves trying to understand how human beings acquired their highly unusual cognitive system, and his current fieldwork involves practical research for a forthcoming book on the Natural History of Beer. His most recently published book (with Peter Nevraumont) is "Hoax. A History of Deception: 5000 Years of Fakes, Forgeries, and Fallacies."



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