Thread by @AdamRutherford

The curse of human uniqueness theories.

"Baron-Cohen postulates that between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago a genetic change took hold in the human brain.."

bit.ly/3uNeVR2

This is not a great look. I'm sure there is more to the book, but this report springs to eternal trap of simplistic single ideas that 'make us human' where evidence is slight.

I would suggest reading Transcendence by @WanderingGaia, Kindred by @LeMoustier, or the Book of Humans by me, which avoid these traps.

Instead, they reflect the complexity of social interactions, demographic transition and many other factors that resulted in what we regard as full package of behavioural modernity.

Uniqueness theories always fail. There was not one thing that 'made us human'. Inventiveness and tool use are certainly part of the mix, but it is in the retention and distribution of ideas that we see population growth and the emergence of behavioural modernity.

I will read the book of course, I'm just unimpressed by this article. There's a whole industry of uniqueness theorising for 'what makes us human'. Fire, psychedelics, fear of snakes, language, tools, non-reproductive sex, cooking, warfare.