EBOOK
Unbound
How Eight Technologies Made Us Human and Brought Our World to the Brink
Richard L. Currier4
(4)
About
Like Guns, Germs, and Steel, a work of breathtaking sweep and originality that reinterprets the human story.
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
The fabrication of weapons, the mastery of fire, and the technologies of clothing and shelter radically restructured the human body, enabling us to walk upright, shed our body hair, and migrate out of tropical Africa. Symbolic communication transformed human evolution from a slow biological process into a fast cultural process. The invention of agriculture revolutionized the relationship between humanity and the environment, and the technologies of interaction led to the birth of civilization. Precision machinery spawned the industrial revolution and the rise of nation-states; and in the next metamorphosis, digital technologies may well unite all of humanity for the benefit of future generations.
Synthesizing the findings of primatology, paleontology, archeology, history, and anthropology, Richard Currier reinterprets and retells the modern narrative of human evolution that began with the discovery of Lucy and other Australopithecus fossils. But the same forces that allowed us to integrate technology into every aspect of our daily lives have also brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe. Unbound explains both how we got here and how human society must be transformed again to achieve a sustainable future.
Technology: "The deliberate modification of any natural object or substance with forethought to achieve a specific end or to serve a specific purpose."
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
The fabrication of weapons, the mastery of fire, and the technologies of clothing and shelter radically restructured the human body, enabling us to walk upright, shed our body hair, and migrate out of tropical Africa. Symbolic communication transformed human evolution from a slow biological process into a fast cultural process. The invention of agriculture revolutionized the relationship between humanity and the environment, and the technologies of interaction led to the birth of civilization. Precision machinery spawned the industrial revolution and the rise of nation-states; and in the next metamorphosis, digital technologies may well unite all of humanity for the benefit of future generations.
Synthesizing the findings of primatology, paleontology, archeology, history, and anthropology, Richard Currier reinterprets and retells the modern narrative of human evolution that began with the discovery of Lucy and other Australopithecus fossils. But the same forces that allowed us to integrate technology into every aspect of our daily lives have also brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe. Unbound explains both how we got here and how human society must be transformed again to achieve a sustainable future.
Technology: "The deliberate modification of any natural object or substance with forethought to achieve a specific end or to serve a specific purpose."
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Reviews
"Currier's seamless narrative recalls Jared Diamond's sprawling histories of human civilization, and like Diamond, Currier manages to be thorough in synthesizing a great deal of specialized knowledge . . . while telling a story that is gripping."
Library Journal
"Here, briefly and artfully told, is the wondrous but ultimately humbling story of how humans have used technology since prehistoric times to conquer the natural world-and why, in the process, we may be destroying it. Richard Currier will grab your attention on the first page and hold it to the last. This is an original and hugely important book."
Tom Gjelten, Religion and Belief Correspondent, NPR News and author of A Nation of Nations
"A breathtaking analysis of human technological, social, and cultural history . . . An original telling of the human story, beautifully written by an erudite anthropologist . . . Unbound should be on every educated person's reading list."
Jack M. Potter, Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley