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Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Categories: Computers & Technology, History & Culture
Non-member price: $36.20
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Publisher's Summary
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."
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Unbound
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- Apollo
- 22-02-2019
Start at Chapter 8
unless you are an anthropologist, the book is dry until chapter 8... then it gets relevant and interesting in a way that can be applied to our current day life. the title "Unbound" made me think the book would be a bit more entertaining. a more appropriate title may have been, "The history and evolution of mankind". Very well researched by an obvious pro.
2 people found this helpful
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- Arthur W. Brown
- 13-01-2019
Interesting but not mind blowing
I was hoping for more, it was neat but I didn't have any goosebump moments
2 people found this helpful
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- Joel B. Gordon
- 30-10-2016
Good facts, not much else
This is the book Jared Diamond would have written, had Jared Diamond been deprived of vision or originality. It covers the cultural and, to a significant degree, the physical evolution of hominids from earlier life forms till the hopes and fears of the future. It is a successful compilation of good information and accepted theory, with a lot of well articulated declarations of the obvious, and, here and there, some juicy surprises. But lacking is any interesting focus or vision, other than, if we choose wisely, we can survive; if not... well, you know. It's the grandeur of human evolution in pedestrian wrap. I learned many good things, but I wish there had been more.
5 people found this helpful
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- J. L. Smith
- 29-01-2021
Very good until the last two chapters.
The author assumes, in the last two chapters, that in the past, and in
some future "global culture", that people will have no problems maintaining their family, clan, tribal, village, and regional identities.
What fantasy history has he been reading? In the last several centuries, Eurocentric cultures have been diligently attempting to 'civilize' innumerable clans, tribes and entire nations.
It seems to be in the nature of most dominant cultures to assume that they are the best culture, and to convert others to that belief at gunpoint.
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- NotExMilitary
- 22-01-2021
Should be renamed intro to anthropology
Very basic information. Nothing anyone who ever took an intro to Anthropology class covering early humans wouldn’t have learned.
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