Cosmosapiens: Human Evolution from the Origin of the Universe

by John Hands

Overview

Specialist scientific fields are developing at incredibly swift speeds, but what can they really tell us about how the universe began and how we as humans evolved to play such a dominant role on Earth? John Hands’ extraordinarily ambitious book merges scientific knowledge from multiple disciplines and evaluates without bias or preconception all the theories and evidence about the origin and evolution of matter, consciousness, and mankind. The result, a “pearl of dialectical reasoning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), provides the most comprehensive account yet of current ideas such as cosmic inflation, dark energy, the selfish gene, and neurogenetic determinism. In the clearest possible prose it differentiates the firmly established from the speculative and examines the claims of various fields to approach a unified theory of everything. In doing so it challenges the orthodox consensus in those branches of cosmology, biology, and neuroscience that have ossified into dogma. Its “shocking and invigorating” analysis (Daily Telegraph, A Best Science Book of 2015) reveals underlying patterns of cooperation, complexification, and convergence that lead to the unique emergence in humans of a self-reflective consciousness that enables us to determine our future evolution. This groundbreaking book is destined to become a classic of scientific thinking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468314243
Publisher:	Abrams Press
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	704
Sales rank:	1,158,477
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

John Hands has devoted more than ten years to evaluating scientific theories about human evolution from the origin of the universe. He graduated in chemistry from the University of London and co-authored two research studies and published one book in the social sciences. He was the founding Director of the Government’s Co-operative Housing Agency and served on three Government committees. He has tutored in both physics and management studies for the Open University and was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University College London. He has written three novels and been published in 8 countries.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/30/2015
In this audacious, ambitious, and philosophically completist study, Hands (Housing Co-operatives) leads an interdisciplinary search through all the current human knowledge that may help answer two burning questions: What are we, and where do we come from? Hands proceeds from the basics of cosmology, chemistry, biology, ethology, philosophy, physics, and more as he addresses historical concepts and current orthodoxies, testing for explanatory and predictive power before he advances to newer and more exotic ideas. The result is a pearl of dialectical reasoning between Hands and the most celebrated experts he can find. In today’s age of specialization, readers will welcome this throwback to the days of the well-informed layperson, conversant and opinionated in a variety of topics. Hands feels that science is the right tool for allowing humans to understand ourselves, but he highlights controversies at the leading edge and explicitly closes his research with a summary of science’s limitations. He ends with a bold, definitive list of everything he thinks we know about ourselves and delivers a short answer to his guiding question: “We are the unfinished product of an accelerating cosmic evolutionary process characterized by collaboration, complexification, and convergence, and the self-reflective agents of our future evolution.” Hands grounds his musings in logic and scientific fact to produce a thoughtful treatise for the eternally curious. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Hands wants to create here a grand synthesis of the history of scientific research in such fields as astronomy, physics, and evolutionary biology. He lays out a sharply lucid picture of each of these disciplines and expertly summarizes the latest thinking on each.

Open Letters Monthly

[A]rgues that mind and matter evolved in unison and, one day, human consciousness and the star-filled universe will be revealed as part of the same cosmic whole. Such ideas were lapped up by the 19th-century followers of Hegel and it is both shocking and invigorating to hear them stated again…in the context of a quantum universe

Nicholas Blincoe - The Telegraph (UK) Best Science Books of 2015

A work as bold, broad, and challenging as this will no doubt tweak the bias any one of us may have regarding a particular event, but, then, so did Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.”

Jeffrey Schwartz

John Hands is an astute observer of recent trends in scientific ideas bold enough to point out what he sees as sense and nonsense and intelligently explain why. Even in cases where one might disagree, the arguments are thought-provoking.

Paul Steinhardt

Hands’s book is a game-changer. In the tradition of Thomas Kuhn’sThe
Structure of ScientificRevolutions, this lucidly written, penetrating analysis challenges us to rethink many things we take for granted about ourselves,
oursociety, and our universe. It will become a classic.

Peter Dreier

John Hands…came to realise, and makes us realise, how much we don't know. Nevertheless, he is optimistic, and when he comes to human evolution and a schematic view of our history, he is hopeful and sees progress in understanding and co-operation. From his book we get that big picture he sought.

Professor David Knight

A fine book...brave, very wide ranging, synoptic.

Professor Stuart Kauffman

With depth and virtuosity, John Hands explores the Big Questions of human existence: who are we? why are we here? where are we headed? …Hands's voyage of inquiry will not only educate you, it will also surprise.

Derek Shearer

An audacious and admirable book…written with engaging style, and the strongest scientific ideas across a swathe of fields in physics and biology are presented lucidly

Larry Steinman

Any conventional Darwinist (and I am one of them) will find a lot to take exception to: but disagreement is the fuel of progress and if you enjoy an argument this is the book for you.

Professor Steve Jones

A major accomplishment

Professor James Shapiro

This book is an intellectual tour-de-force…highly recommended for anyone wishing to get a deeper insight into the fundamental but typically arcane theories that purport to explain where we and the universe that surrounds us are coming from.

Professor Francis Heylighen

A magisterial, persuasive and thought provoking survey of the horizons of modern science.

Dr James Le Fanu

This is a truly exceptional piece of work.

Tim Crane

[A] Book of astonishing ambition and scope.

TLS (A Best Book of the Year)

A compendious work that will intrigue serious readers — Kirkus

Hands’s book is a game-changer.  In the tradition of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this lucidly written, penetrating analysis challenges us to rethink many things we take for granted about ourselves, our society, and our universe.  It will become a classic. — Peter Dreier, E P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College

This is a truly exceptional piece of work. — Tim Crane, Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

John Hands is an astute observer of recent trends in scientific ideas bold enough to point out what he sees as sense and nonsense and intelligently explain why. Even in cases where one might disagree, the arguments are thought-provoking. — Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Princeton University

A work as bold, broad, and challenging as this will no doubt tweak the bias any one of us may have regarding a particular event, but, then, so did Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. — Jeffrey Schwartz, Professor of Physical Anthropology and of The History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh

A magisterial, persuasive and thought provoking survey of the horizons of modern science. — Dr James Le Fanu, author of The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine

This book is an intellectual tour-de-force…highly recommended for anyone wishing to get a deeper insight into the fundamental but typically arcane theories that purport to explain where we and the universe that surrounds us are coming from. — Professor Francis Heylighen, Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Group, Free University of Brussels

A major accomplishment — Professor James Shapiro, author of Evolution: A View From The 21st Century

Any conventional Darwinist (and I am one of them) will find a lot to take exception to: but disagreement is the fuel of progress and if you enjoy an argument this is the book for you. — Professor Steve Jones, author of The Language of the Genes

An audacious and admirable book…written with engaging style, and the strongest scientific ideas across a swathe of fields in physics and biology are presented lucidly — Larry Steinman, Professor of Neurological Science, Stanford University

With depth and virtuosity, John Hands explores the Big Questions of human existence: who are we? why are we here? where are we headed? …Hands's voyage of inquiry will not only educate you, it will also surprise. — Derek Shearer, Director, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, Los Angeles

A fine book...brave, very wide ranging, synoptic. — Professor Stuart Kauffman, author of At Home in the Universe

John Hands…came to realise, and makes us realise, how much we don't know. Nevertheless, he is optimistic, and when he comes to human evolution and a schematic view of our history, he is hopeful and sees progress in understanding and co-operation. From his book we get that big picture he sought. — Professor David Knight, author of The Making of Modern Science

From the Publisher

11/15/2015
With an ambitious goal of presenting a grand synthesis of what science can (and cannot) explain about who we are and what we came from, Hand (a self-described "evaluator of scientific theories and hypotheses about human evolution") examines the state of scientific knowledge in three broad areas: the emergence and evolution of matter (cosmology), of life, and of Homo sapiens. For each of these areas, the author explains the relevant theories, hypotheses, and models (such as the Big Bang, string theory, and natural selection) and then critiques them—pointing out the ways in which they are contradicted by evidence, there is no evidence, their conceptual flaws, or how they succeed or fail as scientific explanations. Ultimately, the author concludes that current knowledge about these great cosmic evolutionary forces is quite sketchy and may be beyond the scope of scientific explanation. VERDICT This is a thoughtful, well-written volume, but at 650 scientifically dense pages it's not an easy read (the cosmology section is especially complex). Recommended as a reference to be consulted rather than a narrative to be read cover to cover.—CLK

Library Journal

This book is an ambitious undertaking. In audio format, it’s tough to digest, even with the capable narrator Gildart Jackson. Author John Hands set out to provide a comprehensive review of all the theories relating to cosmology, evolution, and consciousness. The theories, which vary in complexity, are presented in short snippets by the British-accented Jackson, making frequent references to other sections of the book by number and to the bonus material PDF containing diagrams and charts. This text requires sustained attention to understand the complex concepts and absorb the many details. Listeners must also commit to reviewing the bonus material and to jumping to the referenced sections in order to fully comprehend the concepts. Readers may be better off sticking to the print version. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

2015-09-21
Hands has spent the last 10 years assembling a critical overview of scientific orthodoxy in an attempt to answer the fundamental questions "what are we?" and "why are we here?" The author, who has had managerial responsibilities in the British government and has tutored in physics and management studies for the Open University, acknowledges the help of more than 50 accredited scientists with expertise in the fields he explores. The first target of his scrutiny is modern cosmologists, who face the dilemma of attempting to explain the putative origin of the universe in a big bang. Hands finds their efforts to be fundamentally inadequate due to their necessary reliance on both Einstein's general relativity theory and the Standard Model of particle physics. Even though "each has been extremely successful in making predictions that have been verified by observation and experiment within its own realm," they are incompatible theoretically. Another of the author's bones of contention concerns the rate of expansion of the universe and whether it is constant or cyclical. He examines various attempts to explain the process, including string theory, loop theory, and the existence of undetectable dark matter and energy. In the author's view, an even more fundamental issue is that scientists today mistakenly "conflate mathematical theory with scientific theory." Moving on to the origins of life on Earth, Hands suggests that Darwin's reputation is overblown and finds fault with the current "gene-focused paradigm." Although the author refutes the claims of intelligent design proponents, he accepts the views of the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that the evolution of self-reflective humans has created a new stage in the evolution of the biosphere by our use of tools, artistic creations, and philosophy. Hands speculates on new stages of development involving "psychic" energy, and he provides an extensive glossary, which is helpful given the amount and depth of the material, much of which is esoteric. A compendious work that will intrigue serious readers; others may find it overlong and too comprehensive.

Kirkus Reviews