Joseph Henrich: "The Secret of Our Success" | Talks at Google

source: Talks at Google   2016年3月7日
Joseph Henrich talks how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter. Humans are a puzzling species. What has enabled us to dominate the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually helpless as lone individuals? Joseph Henrich's book shows that the secret of our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our collective brains—on the ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another over generations.

Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the human genome, Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our biology. Henrich shows how our genetics and biology are inextricably interwoven with cultural evolution, and how culture-gene interactions launched our species on an extraordinary evolutionary trajectory.

Tracking clues from our ancient past to the present, The Secret of Our Success explores how the evolution of both our cultural and social natures produce a collective intelligence that explains both our species' immense success and the origins of human uniqueness.

Henrich is professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition, and Co-evolution at the University of British Columbia, where he is a professor in the departments of psychology and economics. He is the coauthor of "Why Humans Cooperate" and the co-editor of "Experimenting with Social Norms."
Talk hosted by Boris Debic.