'With Genesis Wilson inspires awe ... His message is that selection has shaped a society that
is characterized by cooperation and division of labour' NatureOf all species that have ever
existed on earth only one has reached human levels of intelligence and social organisation:
us. Why? In Genesis celebrated biologist Edward O. Wilson traces the great transitions of
evolution from the origin of life to the invention of sexual reproduction to the development
of language itself.The only way for us to fully understand human behaviour Wilson argues is
to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these he demonstrates that at
least seventeen - from the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp to one of the
oldest species on earth the termite - have been found to have advanced societies based on
altruism cooperation and the division of labour. These rare eusocial species form the
prehistory to our human social patterns even according to Wilson suggesting the possible
biological benefits of homosexuality and elderly grandmothers.Whether writing about midges who
dance about like acrobats schools of anchovies who protectively huddle to appear like a
gigantic fish or well-organised flocks becoming potentially immortal Genesis is a pathbreaking
work of evolutionary theory filled with lyrical observations. It will make us rethink how we
became who we are.
