How Biology and Technology Shape Sex and War. By Alexis Madrigal.
Humans and chimps, our closest relatives, share a curious trait: We organize to kill members of our own species. A new book, Sex and War, delves into how the most intelligent apes on Earth, essentially alone in the animal kingdom, evolved the ability to organize for extreme violence. UC Berkeley obstetrician, Malcolm Potts and science writer Thomas Hayden take a wide-ranging look at the many places that biology intersects with war. But the most fascinating parts of the book look at how modern technology has interacted with our Stone Age brains' risk calculators to produce the brutality and aggression of the world today. In this Wired.com interview with Hayden and Potts, they talk about the evolutionary adaptation that allows us to kill our enemies, how chimps and bonobos inform our knowledge of human nature, and why the most destructive weapon might be a hormone, not a bomb. more... http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/qa-how-biology.html _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
