Book review: "The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution" by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending
Like Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", this book heralds a scientific way of studying history.
History is not science. At least not yet. One proof is that nobody has been able to predict the future with the same degree of success as Newtonian Dynamics does, say, the lunar eclipse. In fact, the more you study history, the more you understand how fickle it is and feel hopeless in predicting anything. However, with the method of natural experiment and great advance in molecular biology, I see hope.
This book convincingly argues that human evolution did not stop after modern human expanded from Africa. On the contrary, there are strong evidences that we evolved at faster and faster pace. People from different places are not only different culturally, but also biologically. Our culture affects our genes and vice versa. Natural selection intertwines with "culture selection".
For example, there is genetic evidence to explain why Asian kids are better at school and exams. Specifically, Asians have genes that give them a longer attention span, which is known to be the key to success in school and exams. This is hardly unthinkable once you realize that the Imperial Examination (科举) was instituted about 2000 years ago to select civil servants in China and widely copied in other Asian countries influenced by Confucianism. Those who succeeded in the exam are almost always better off than those who did not therefore have a reproductive advantage, i.e., more surviving children. Generations later, there is no surprise that Asian kids do better in school and exams.
Another great example is how Ashkenazi Jews became so smart. (Think Einstein.) A whole chapter is devoted to answer this question and answers it well.
I couldn't help but take this train of thought to contemporary China, where liars and conmen thrive. (如韩寒、唐骏、蒋方舟等人。） If the situation continues, it is inevitable that evolution would select "good liars" and Chinese would become a people of “natural born liars”. Of course, evolution takes a long time and I do hope the China would become a society of honesty and trust again before it is too late.
2013/02/02
Like Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies", this book heralds a scientific way of studying history.
History is not science. At least not yet. One proof is that nobody has been able to predict the future with the same degree of success as Newtonian Dynamics does, say, the lunar eclipse. In fact, the more you study history, the more you understand how fickle it is and feel hopeless in predicting anything. However, with the method of natural experiment and great advance in molecular biology, I see hope.
This book convincingly argues that human evolution did not stop after modern human expanded from Africa. On the contrary, there are strong evidences that we evolved at faster and faster pace. People from different places are not only different culturally, but also biologically. Our culture affects our genes and vice versa. Natural selection intertwines with "culture selection".
For example, there is genetic evidence to explain why Asian kids are better at school and exams. Specifically, Asians have genes that give them a longer attention span, which is known to be the key to success in school and exams. This is hardly unthinkable once you realize that the Imperial Examination (科举) was instituted about 2000 years ago to select civil servants in China and widely copied in other Asian countries influenced by Confucianism. Those who succeeded in the exam are almost always better off than those who did not therefore have a reproductive advantage, i.e., more surviving children. Generations later, there is no surprise that Asian kids do better in school and exams.
Another great example is how Ashkenazi Jews became so smart. (Think Einstein.) A whole chapter is devoted to answer this question and answers it well.
I couldn't help but take this train of thought to contemporary China, where liars and conmen thrive. (如韩寒、唐骏、蒋方舟等人。） If the situation continues, it is inevitable that evolution would select "good liars" and Chinese would become a people of “natural born liars”. Of course, evolution takes a long time and I do hope the China would become a society of honesty and trust again before it is too late.
2013/02/02
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