Unbound

How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink

By: Richard L. Currier

Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine

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."

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Richard L. Currier (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Maybe the best I've listened to

Way better than sapiens. Author doesn't have time to go in depth because so many things are covered, but they still make lots of concrete and fascinating points. Not perfect, but I'm very glad I listened to this

Interesting but not mind blowing

I was hoping for more, it was neat but I didn't have any goosebump moments

Unbound

This book offers a wide-lens perspective on the evolution of humanity’s use of tools. While much of this information can be found elsewhere, this book does a good job of bringing together many branches of anthropology and evolutionary science to show the trajectory our species has taken, and offers some theories about what may come next based on this information.

The story of mankind -, Fantastic overview !

Well worth listening to. To be gained is a deeper appreciation of all that has come before us.

Excellent

I'm not an archeologist, anthropologist or even a scientist, just an ordinary citizen, but I enjoyed this book immensely. It's well written and the narator is very good as well.