How Long to Read What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future

How Long Does it Take to Read What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future?

It takes the average reader 3 hours and 30 minutes to read What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future by Lonnie Aarssen

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

Other animals are driven to spend essentially their whole lives just trying to get fed, stay alive, and get laid. That’s about it. The same was true for our proto-human ancestors. And modern humans of course also require a Survival Drive and a Sex Drive in order to leave descendants. But today we spend most of our lives mainly just trying to convince ourselves that our existence is not absurd. In What We Are, Queen’s University biologist, Lonnie Aarssen, traces how our biocultural evolution has shaped Homo sapiens into the only creature that refuses to be what it is — the only creature preoccupied with a deeply ingrained, and absurd sentiment: I have a distinct ‘mental life’—an ‘inner self’—that exists separately and apart from ‘material life’, and so, unlike the latter, need not come to an end. This delusion conceivably gave our distant ancestors some wishful thinking for finding some measure of relief from the terrifying, uniquely human knowledge of the eventual loss of corporeal survival. But this came with an impulsive, nagging doubt — an obsessive underlying uncertainty: ‘self-impermanence anxiety’. Biocultural evolution, however, was not finished. It also gave us two additional, uniquely human, primal drives, both serving to help quell the burden of this anxiety. Legacy Drive generates delusional cultural domains for ‘extension’ of self; and Leisure Drive generates pleasurable cultural domains for distraction – ‘escape’ – from self. Legacy Drive and Leisure Drive, Aarssen argues, represent two of the most profound consequences of human cognitive and cultural evolution. What We Are advances propositions regarding how a visceral susceptibility to self-impermanence anxiety has — paradoxically — played a pivotal role in rewarding the reproductive success of our ancestors, and has thus been a driving force in shaping fundamental motivations and cultural norms of modern humans. More than any other milestone in the evolution of human minds, self-impermanence anxiety, and its mitigating Drives for Legacy and Leisure, account for not just the advance of civilization over the past many thousands of years, but also now, its impending collapse. Effective management of this crisis, Aarssen insists, will require a deeper and more broadly public understanding of its Darwinian evolutionary roots — as laid out in What We Are.

How long is What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future?

What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future by Lonnie Aarssen is 206 pages long, and a total of 52,736 words.

This makes it 70% the length of the average book. It also has 64% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 4 hours and 48 minutes to read What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future aloud.

What Reading Level is What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future?

What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future?

What We Are: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Future by Lonnie Aarssen is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

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