humans

Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy

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This book is an interesting read coming straight off the back of Human Origins. The book starts out by explaining the impact the invention of the plow had on humanity -- it asserts that farmers being able to produce substantially more than they needed for their own subsistence was a driving factor in the creation of both other specializations (by freeing people up from farming), but also a more unequal society (as it allowed a ruling class to live off resources produced by others). This is an interesting assertion to me. Next the book moves on to observing that with all innovations there is a winner and a loser. An early example is the phonograph -- before the invention of recorded media there was a market for quite-good-but-not-great performers to entertain people. Once there was an ability to record great performers, the earning capacity of the great performers went way up but the earning capacity of the not-quite-great performers went down. So while society overall might benefit from innovation, it is not true that all participants in the market benefit at the time of the innovation. The book then starts walking through a series of inventions. Each is presented as…

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New Scientist Instant Expert: Human Origins

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This book triggered my weak spot. There I was wandering in a book store and it caught my eye. The combination of the promise of instant expertise and and interesting topic area was too much for my already notably poor impulse control with books and a purchase was made. Covering from our distant origins from probably Asia, to stone tool use on African grasslands, to the invention of cooking and farming. The book asserts that 20% of our basal calorie burn is our brain, which drove the adoption to eating meat. While I'm not disputing the number, 20% seems like a lot to me. I wonder if that explains why I find training courses so tiring, my brain is literally consuming extra energy? As an aside, a study by Richard Wrangham mentioned in this book asserts that to live a leisurely western lifestyle using only raw vegetarian food, you'd have to consume 9% of your bodyweight a day. That certainly meshes with the "eat a salad" weight loss advice! So in the end, do I think I am an expert on human evolution? No, not really. The book was an interesting read and I enjoyed it, but perhaps the title…

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