The Deep History of Ourselves
The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
by Joseph LeDoux · first published 2019
5mentions
2recommended by
4HN commenters
2019–2025first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% critical
"Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This page-turning survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human." --Amazon.
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…mammals and amphibians – came into existence; and 500 million years before the emergence of dinosaurs. https://eusci.org.uk/2020/06/22/an-alien-in-our-sea-a-look-a... Nice book about the topic is "The Deep History of Ourselves" by Joseph LeDoux. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-History-Ourselves-Microbes-Consc...
on “Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals” ↗If you have not read it, yet, I highly recommend it: The Deep History of Ourselves by Joseph LeDoux. I think that your entire thought process can be hypothesized all the way back to the first cellular colonies. Individualist needed the sustainable colony to get the chance to grow and…
on “Human reproduction comes at the expense of faster aging and a shorter life” ↗…Click here to kill everybody by Bruce Schneier. Scary. Machines like me by Ian McEwan. First McEwan I read for a while but I liked it more than I expected. I thought the AI bits were quite good. The deep history of ourselves : the four-billion-year story of how we got conscious brains by Joseph LeDoux. Bit disappointed in this one, it seemed like there should have been a better story here. The Tangled Tree: A Radical New…
on “Ask HN: What Are You Reading?” ↗So many adjectives... and "radical" in the title is a doozy considering this article is essentially a stoner summary of LeDoux's "Deep History of Ourselves" with the science replaced with thesaurus suggestions.
on “A new proposal for how mind emerges from matter” ↗The Deep History of Ourselves is a book that goes from single cell to consciousnesses. Here is a review: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02475-x
on “A single cell slime mold makes decisions without a central nervous system” ↗