About this series
Book One of The Secrets of Life quartet began the long narrative of existence by showing how the forces that Big Bang unleashed drove the Earth’s evolutionary developments, and how it after 3.8 billion years of life and the extinction of many billions of species, our obscure forest-dwelling ancestors emerged in East Africa. Yet what, Book Two asks, were the steps that led to us humans becoming so totally different to anything that had appeared before? If we really were just another kind of animal off the production line of life, then what were the revolutions that turbo-charged our unique abilities?
How did we evolve so that we could alter ourselves in an instant, and avoid being stuck in an evolutionary niche like every other organism? How did we manage to create the intelligence and insights that allowed us to make our own decisions in life? And where did the free will come from that would let us override the drives of our animal pasts? We alone of all the world’s species have ever been able to predict the future, and then change our behaviour so that it suited our ambitions. But how did we grow our brains and imaginations so greatly that we could achieve this? And only we have evolved the capacity to reject the genetic instructions that shaped us. But why do we think this helps - and how has it affected our lives? Now, using the same easy-going conversational style of the other books in the series, O'Connor answers these and other questions to explain how we evolved to break away from everything that had existed before us. And yet why the effects of our heritage so often still emerge in how we exist.
Titles in the series (2)
- How Did Life End Up With Us?: The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump
1
Why does the gene behave like a hedge fund manager? Why are mutations like a gambling scam? Why does nothing ever become top dog in life and win forever? Humans only arrived after 99.99% of the time there’s been life on earth. So what was here before us? And how did these species, and the evolutionary process that created them, end up with the unpromising creatures that were our ancestors? In this, the first book of The Secrets of Life quartet, SS O’Connor brings his outsider’s, questioning eye to reveal the great forces that lie behind life: from the laws that arose with Big Bang, through to the ‘decisions’ that organisms make to determine their chances. But how did everything come about? And what made some life forms succeed - while others would join the 99.9% of species that appeared, yet went on to become extinct? The story goes right back to our single-celled forebears - the only things that were on the planet for 80% of its existence, and then continues as it lays out the ways that successive transmissions built increasing complexity, and how the resulting species found their synergistic ways of coexisting. In an easy-going, conversational style, O'Connor explains in lay-man's language how the gene is the great conductor of life’s orchestra, how it helped millions of life forms to refine themselves - yet why it also sees failure, death and extinctions as opportunities rather than disasters. Last, the book tells the story of the men who unpicked the mysteries, what they meant by fitness and ‘the fittest’, but why they continued to be baffled by organisms that broke the rules by helping each other. Why would some even choose to be sterile when producing the next generation was the overriding compulsion in life? And why would the answer to this question explain why altruism is the proof for the ‘gene-based theory of evolution’ - and why cooperation was to become the strongest force in life?
- How Did We Get To Be So Different?: The Secrets of Life: From Big Bang to Trump
2
How is it we humans only arrived after 99.995% of the time there’s been life on earth - and yet we’re now so dominant? If mutations take generations to have an effect, how did we manage to change so completely in just a blink in time? And why were our rulers and societies always so horrible - yet we endlessly put up with them? Book One of The Secrets of Life quartet began the long narrative of existence by showing how the forces that Big Bang unleashed drove the Earth’s evolutionary developments, and how it after 3.8 billion years of life and the extinction of many billions of species, our obscure forest-dwelling ancestors emerged in East Africa. Yet what, Book Two asks, were the steps that led to us humans becoming so totally different to anything that had appeared before? If we really were just another kind of animal off the production line of life, then what were the revolutions that turbo-charged our unique abilities? How did we evolve so that we could alter ourselves in an instant, and avoid being stuck in an evolutionary niche like every other organism? How did we manage to create the intelligence and insights that allowed us to make our own decisions in life? And where did the free will come from that would let us override the drives of our animal pasts? We alone of all the world’s species have ever been able to predict the future, and then change our behaviour so that it suited our ambitions. But how did we grow our brains and imaginations so greatly that we could achieve this? And only we have evolved the capacity to reject the genetic instructions that shaped us. But why do we think this helps - and how has it affected our lives? Now, using the same easy-going conversational style of the other books in the series, O'Connor answers these and other questions to explain how we evolved to break away from everything that had existed before us. And yet why the effects of our heritage so often still emerge in how we exist.
Related to The Secrets of Life Series
Related ebooks
Female Force: Gabrielle Giffords Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRuth & Freddy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBaneberry Creek: Academy for Wayward Fairies #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDollz #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKyron and The Meadow Monster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossed Wires: Team-Up Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuatermain #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Sonoma - Valley of the Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsglobo arte october issue 2021 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegend of Isis: Darkness Falls Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock and Roll Comics: Joan Jett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFemale Force: Silver Screen Legends: Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Rescued Two Dogs: Now Who Will Rescue Me? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlackbeard Legacy #2 Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVincent Price Presents: Volume #03 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrbit: Mikhail Prokhorov Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings20 Million Miles More Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/520 Million Miles More #0 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5My Alabaster Box...: Poetry, Prose, and Prayer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsfjell Point Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYour Guide To: Fearless Entrepreneurship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonster’s Among Us: A War of Witches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOdyssey Presents: Anthology #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsyellow promises Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReach Your Dreams: Five Steps to be a Conscious Creator in Your Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoo and the World of Crum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFemale Force: RuPaul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom the Heart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegend of Isis #12: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMud Pups’ Adventures vol. 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Philosophy For You
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Course in Miracles: Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Here Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bhagavad Gita (in English): The Authentic English Translation for Accurate and Unbiased Understanding Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Buddha's Guide to Gratitude: The Life-changing Power of Everyday Mindfulness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Experiencing God (2021 Edition): Knowing and Doing the Will of God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of Western Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bhagavad Gita Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Courage to Be Happy: Discover the Power of Positive Psychology and Choose Happiness Every Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Loving Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: Six Translations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Secrets of Life Series
0 ratings0 reviews