Humanity: An Unauthorized Biography

Humanity: An Unauthorized Biography explores the difference between what people are and what they think they are.

Preview Chapter 1 in PDF.

Coming soon to Amazon.

The human species is the most remarkable product of evolution on Earth. Our ability to get along with others in small groups better than any other species allowed us to dominate our planet. But we are utterly terrible at running a global, highly interconnected society full of people who look and act differently. We fear when we should not fear. We compete when we must cooperate.

Humanity: An Unauthorized Biography asks whether we can survive the cost of our own simple desires, or whether we are inextricably headed toward a complete, and terrifying, societal collapse. Can we avoid warfare, competition for increasingly scarce resources, and our own prejudices long enough to create a better future?

Multidisciplinary engineer David Hyland-Wood takes on the complexity of humanity using new findings in evolution, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy to describe our past, our present, and possible scenarios for our future. Culture, it seems, won’t be enough to avoid our fate.

Humanity: An Unauthorized Biography reprises three archetypes first identified by Plato that form the basis for human cultures; leaders, shamans, and followers. The book shows how the relationships between these archetypes define every society, from hunter-gatherers to the Internet.

Hyland-Wood audaciously suggests that we may need to change ourselves to ensure our own survival.