Humanity 
The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants
 

     Click here to order                            CFP Home                                        Back

              TABLE OF CONTENTS 

FORWARD  Peter J. Richerson

PROLOGUE   In a nutshell
 

I. WHAT CAME BEFORE HUMANITY? Setting the stage
  1.
COSMOS  Stars and Planets for life
  2.
LIFE  Nature’s road to complexity
  3.
ANTS  Jewels of the genetic crown
  4.
CHIMPANZEES  Masters of Machiavellian intrigue

II. HOW DID WE COME TO BE? Culture evolution takes command
  5.
HOMINIDS  The chimpanzees who were thrown to the lions
  6.
CIVILIZATIONS The chimpanzees who became ants
  7.
MACHINES  The geese who laid the golden eggs
  8.
SCIENTISTS The curious cats who pried open
      Pandora's Box 

III. WHAT IS OUR FATE?  Four alternative finales
  9.
CHIMPANZEE PARADISE  High-tech Garden of Eden
 10.
BOOM & BUST  May the punishment fit the crime
 11.
PLANETARY SUPERORGANISM  Together on the global farm
 12.
STAR TREK  Our descendants inherit the galaxy

EPILOGUE   Futures most likely and desirable

»  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RUSSELL MERLE GENET

   BOOK DESCRIPTION

Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants
is the science-based story of how, in a remote corner of an ordinary galaxy 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang, the descendants of a third line of chimpanzees evolved into millions of humans who organized themselves into ant-like societies. Originally rare hunters, we humans took up agricultural ways, aping the clever ants that became numerous by developing ingenious herding and gardening skills. Evolving our simple chimp tools into machines, we then tapped a bonanza of fossil fuel energy and blitzkrieged the planet. Now facing planetary limits, what is our fate? Reversing direction, will we return to a planetary Garden of Eden or, pedal to the metal, crash into oblivion? Will we transform the Earth into a sustainable global farm or, leaving our birth-planet behind, voyage to the stars with our machine partners to establish a galactic empire?

© 2007

Website design and development by Cheryl Genet, Orion Design Services  www.OrionInstitute.org