Transcendence cover art

Transcendence

How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Transcendence

By: Gaia Vince
Narrated by: Gaia Vince
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny

What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements - fire, language, beauty, and time - our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.

©2020 Gaia Vince (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Anthropology Biology Civilization Evolution Social Sciences Genetics Human Brain
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

A History of the Human Brain cover art
Evolution cover art
Anthropology for Dummies, 2nd Edition cover art
The World According to Physics cover art
How to Understand Everything cover art
Dance of the Dung Beetles cover art
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution cover art
A Brief Natural History of Civilization cover art
Close Encounters with Humankind cover art
Unbound cover art
The Creative Spark cover art
Last Ape Standing cover art
A Pocket History of Human Evolution cover art
The Self Delusion cover art
The Secret of Our Success cover art
The Great Mental Models cover art

What listeners say about Transcendence

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great flowing history of humankind.

The accuracy, sensitivity and honesty of the author is refreshing and inspiring The storyteller is not afraid to speak the truth, however manages to maintain a sense of awe , wonder, positivity and hope for the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book but unfortunately poor recording

An amazing book full of fascinating facts and information. A real eye opener. The story telling is compelling, and the author is tells the story in an animated and engaging way. I loved it.

Unfortunately, the recording is not great as there are a lot of unpleasant mouth noises that really distract from the content (particularly if you have misophonia). Some more careful editing and quality control could have really improved this as an audio book. If you are misophonic or sound sensitive, I recommend reading rather than listening!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great non-fiction told through story

Pretty great throughout although some parts are slightly weaker but would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to know where we’ve come from and where we could go next

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

The first half is good, the second half not so

Fire and Language make sense (although ‘writing’ is arguably much mire important than language), but once you get to beauty and time, the author fails and starts to list numerous examples that are either not very relevant, or not very solid to begin with.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!