How the Mind Changed

  

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain

Author: Joseph Jebelli

Publisher: Little, Brown Spark

Release Date: 7.12.22

Publisher’s Summary 

A deeply researched and beautifully written account of how the human brain evolved, from the earliest primates through the modern age.

The human brain is an astonishing thing. No other life form on the planet has a brain like ours. How did such a unique brain emerge? How did a bundle of cells weighing just 1.2 kg give rise to conscious, self‑aware beings capable of understanding time, language, mathematics, and music, of exploring outer space and sequencing their own DNA? From what curious blend of nature and nurture did such astonishing intelligence arise? The answer to these questions and more is a 7-million-year-long saga. It is the story of how the human brain evolved.

How the Mind Changed is the definitive book on the evolution of the human mind. A sweeping natural history, it describes the remarkable origin of our species' most mysterious organ and how it has developed into its miraculous modern form. How the Mind Changed also sets out to answer existential questions about what the future holds in store for our brains. Will brain‑computer interfaces change human life? Can humans free their minds from the confines of biology and achieve digital immortality? What are the implications of such advances ‑‑ will the self evolve also?

Drawing on the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, How the Mind Changed is a fascinating, in‑depth look at where the organ that truly makes us human comes from ‑‑ and where it is going.

My Review

I've been trying to read more nonfiction books and in doing so have found that there tend to be 2 distinct writing styles within the genre: (1) dense, dreadful, and makes me feel like I'm in a terrible high school class or (2) accessible, interesting, thought-provoking, and maybe even a little fun/funny. Luckily, How the Mind Changed falls into the second category. Author and neuroscientist Joseph Jebelli received a PhD in neuroscience from University College London for his work on the cell biology of neurodegenerative diseases, then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Washington. He pairs examples of scientific evidence with great storytelling skills. I found lots of parts very interesting, for example, this tidbit had me really thinking. 

"And a single mutation is all it takes: if a mutant organism produces just 1 per cent more offspring than its non-mutant rivals, it leaps from representing 0.1 per cent of the population to 99.9 per cent in just 4,000 generations, a mere 100,000 years."

To further give readers an idea of what to expect from How the Mind Changed, I've included the table of contents below

Table of Contents
1. Building the Human Brain

2. Inventing Emotions

3. Our Social Brains

4. The Genesis of Memory

5. The Truth about Intelligence

6. Creating Language

7. The Illusion of Consciousness

8. Different Minds

9. The iBrain