PW Singer's Wired for War

Considering how long we've been in the Industrial Revolution and just how long the concepts of robots have existed, it almost is an amazing thing we haven't taken things farther than we have. How many people out there think robots are cool? And yet the ones we make are still relatively simple when you stop to think about it. With the computer and information revolutions we are seeing now however, robotics at last appears ready to make leaps and bounds by taking advantage of recent developments in automation and computerized intelligence. In chosing this as a subject, PW Singer's newest book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Armed Conflict in the 21st Century gives us a broad look at where the future might be taking us. It's a long and meaty discussion on not only how machines themselves are changing now, but also how they might be changing us. While mainly a discourse on machinery, its other major topic is war, and like many technologies developed in the past, this one also seems to be receiving a major push from military interest on how it can help win future struggles.



Effects of new technologies on war

The book starts out with an explanation of where we currently are with regards to robots and intelligent machines. Several of the most common and advanced ones are introduced and described. There are small and domestic ones like the Roomba which saves you time by automatically scanning the room to determine if the floor is dirty enough to warrant a cleaning, and then vacuums it for you. There are others that are more like advanced remote control toys but have been specialized to do difficult or dangerous jobs e.g. bomb diffusal robots like the Packbot, which is currently being used in Iraq (this robot made an appearance at the beginning of the recent movie "The Hurt Locker"). Then there are ones that more resemble automated or unmanned vehicles than anything else (self driving cars, planes and tanks). Still others can be more malevolent and aggressive. These machines are able to analyse a potential threat and its direction, and are often armed, carrying bombs and guns. One frightening aspect is that sometimes they are also given enough autonomy to fire at will, though generally this final command must be confirmed first by a human making the decision.

That a need is created in warfare for a new type of device or resource has often spurred invention to fill such needs. Ancient examples include catapults and seige engines which came about with the advent of castles. More recent ones are rubber boots for walking through mud, and canned food that would keep longer without spoiling for providing armies with nutrition on long campaigns and marches. Wired for War includes a description of some of these advancements while going on to detail how the current conflicts against terrorism and insurgency in places like Iraq and Afganistan have led to new needs that robots have begun to fill. Specifically hidden dangers like bombs and traps, as well as an anxious public back home that wants the military to accomplish its goals with minimal troops and loss of life. It is for this reason that automated or intelligent machines now increasingly do the dangerous jobs such as bomb diffusal and patrolling the neighborhoods and skies in the foreign countries we've come to occupy.

It's fascinating some of the information presented early in the book on the difference between human and robotic combatants. We learn that not only is using a robot safer, but in many cases more precise or deadly. Humans holding guns, for example, are prone to many negative factors such as tension, shock, and emotion affecting heartbeat and consequently the stability of grip and aim. A robot with a mounted gun, by contrast, doesn't have to deal with shakiness of aim, or even the stress and fear caused by having someone shoot at you, its aim is much more steady. On the example of unmanned aircraft, we learn that they are not only cheaper than those requiring pilots (think of all the costs cut by not building a cockpit with levers, buttons and other user interface and instead having it all internalized) but also are capable of maneuvers impossible to humans. This last point is a result of increased aerodynamics by removing the cockpit and also the machine not being subject to the human limitations of a pilot who might lose consciousness doing certain extreme types of rolls and drops.

In putting together a history of war and its significance, a few other important concepts are introduced and disected. A "Revolution in Military Affairs" (or RMA) is an advent that occasionally comes along which completely changes warfare and causes a lot of the older tactics to become obsolete. Guns and cannons destroying the relevency and practicality of old armor and large castle walls are example of this. A more recent one is the development and proper deployment of tanks ending the trench warfare of World War I.

Another major concept given the rundown in this book is Military Doctrine. This is probably best described as the protocal of how a military acts and reacts to given situations, a combination of strategy and guidelines of conduct. Major literary works of the past (both fiction and non-fiction) are mentioned as having had an immense ammount influence on military doctrine and one can't help but wonder if someday this book (and possibly Singer's others as well) will be included on such a list of required reading for soldiers and military leaders with aspirations. The book makes clear that RMA's aren't everything, and that without an according change in doctrine, may not necessarily mean success. To use the book's example, France and England both had tanks before Germany, but it was the Germans who developed the doctrine to use it most effectively with their "blitzkreig" style of warfare, and thus they were the ones most successful during WWII (at least until the US entered the war).

Among the interesting ways war has changed with technologic advancement are that more space was continually required per soldier on the field. Knights in armor fought hand to hand and thus the battles were close combat in smaller areas. The development of longbows enlarged the space of the battlefield and guns and canon enlargend it even further. Recent developments have now moved the fighting into cities, yet another major change which throws out the window much of what we once knew. A more recentl observation the book makes is that while modern communication devices are making the exchange of information more efficient for militaries, they're creating new problems at the same time. This occurs by creating a flood of too much information and giving people far removed by the chain of command the ability to simply "jump in" and take control via computer rather than allowing others closer (and perhaps better able to make important judgements) to the situation to handle things.

Other factors mentioned deal with the effects of increased robot use on opponents. One positive might be that suicidal insurgents who are willing to risk or even give up their lives to take down a US soldier, might not be so willing to do so merely to destroy a robot used by the US military. Also, while the safety of the soldiers might be increasing through robotics, the psychological effect on opponents may or may not be the desired one. While some designers and generals drool over the concept of creating "shock and awe" by using robots in war, the end result might simply be an increased hatred and a perception of cowardice by hiding behind machines. The idea of a foreign power coming to your country to occupy it, and then sending machines to patrol your neighborhoods does sound like something that would incense ordinary people and not just insurgents. On top of that, "shock and awe" might not be the best way to win the hearts and minds of the those you'll need to leave in control when you leave, and in the end, tanks and airplanes were also once viewed as monsterous and frightning but now are taken for granted, which leads one to believe the same might be just as true of robots.



The Effect of Robots on Us

Warfare isn't the only thing that looks to be affected by the increased use of robotics. The book makes it a very emphasized point that this is something which stands to change the everyday lives of people as well.

The concept of "The Singularity" is discussed briefly. Being a hypothetical that will supposedly change things in ways we can't understand (and thus has a lot of skeptic attitudes towards it), however, there isn't much to be done here than to give an overview of the idea and examine the various opinions of experts in this area.

With remote systems now engaging in the fighting another unique occurence is looked at. What of the "fighters" who control these machines from US soil? They wake up and go to work like the rest of us, but then their work consists of controlling a machine thousands of miles away in another country and at times fighting and killing real people with it. At the end of the day they get right back in their cars and do mundane things like go home or head to PTA meetings. Much has been made in the past about advancements removing soldiers further and further from the actual fighting and the potentially negative effects of feeling detached from carnage and the repurcussions of one's actions. But these people are literally beaming death halfway across the world. What kind of psychological effect does this have on people? For that matter, can we qualify them as "combatants", and if so is an enemy within the ethics of war to attack one of these men on their home soil viewing them as a threat? And if one of them commits a war crime using a machine, what then? We've all seen people get furious and throw tantrums over losing at video games, sometimes reacting by crashing their or killing their in-game avatars on purpose. Is the day coming when someone operating from US soil simply flips out and uses a machine to kill civilians in another country?

Ethics are becoming murkier and murkier with the development and spread of this new technology. And on the domestic side of the story another issue mentioned only very briefly is that of using robots for pleasure. Porno, like the military, has strangely enough actually been responsible for many advancements in technology, particularly when it comes to making things more for private use. What's at issue in a nutshell is this: human-looking robots are going to keep becoming more and more life-like, and sooner or later someone's going to make one that looks like a child. Do we allow pleasurebots that look like children to be bought and sold and used? Proponents will likely argue that it's therapeutic and allows them a release by indulging in what isn't permitted by law with real children. Opponents most likely will protest that it encourages an already unhealthy mental state. My own thoughts: if it's made illegal a black market will almost certainly emerge, but if it's made legal expect protesters to surround stores and business and harass those who try to buy or sell one. By making a product which caters to such a despised desire, it might become easier for people to find those they hate.

Cultures react differently to robots too. Because I currently live in Japan, one area that I personally was quite interested in is how the Japanese use and design and feel differently about robots than us in the western world. There isn't any one section that focuses completely on this, the examples instead are usually littered throughout the book. I'll try and keep this brief because I think I'd like to explore this one further in a future "Notes on Japan" entry, but the bottom line here is that the Japanese in general do seem much more comfortable with the idea of robots multiplying and playing a larger role in daily life. Americans, by contrast, have something of a fear of them: that they will steal more jobs on the mild end and that they'll take us over completely on the more extreme side of things.

This of course leads into one question I'm sure everyone has on their mind when the future of robots is considered seriously. Could they take us over? Will they? Is it inevitable? Or is it all just paranoia? Alas, the book does not have an exact answer although it does certainly recognize and address the question. The discussion unfortunately is rather a brief one being that there are simply too many unknowns to say anything for certain. Several important "prerequisites" for a robot apocalypse are brought up which definitely enlighten the topic though. I don't think there's anyway for me to say it better or sum it up any shorter so I'm just going to go ahead and quote them here:

"Essentially, four conditions would have to be met. First, the machines would have to be independent, able to fuel, repair, and reproduce themselves without human help. Second, the machines would have to be more intelligent than humans, but have no positive human qualities (such as empathy or ethics). Third, they would have to have a survival instinct, as well as some sort of interest and will to control their environment. And, fourth, humans would have to have no useful control interface into the machines' decision-making. They would have to have lost any ability to override, intervene, or even shape the machines' decisions and actions."

While things are advancing quickly, it's "a pretty high bar to cross, at least in the short term" he goes on to add, before chronicling several other important things to consider on this topic.

"With so many people spun up about fears of a robot takeover, the idea that no one would remember to build in any fail-safes is a bit of a stretch... Of course eventually a super-intelligent machine would figure out a way around each of these barriers... However, if ever it does happen, humanity will likely not be caught off guard, as in the movies. You don't get machines beyond control until you first go through the step of having machines with little control. So we should have some pretty good warning signs to look out for... But for all the fears of a world where robots rule with an iron fist, we already do live in a would where machines rule humanity in another way... We are dependent on technology that most of us don't even understand. Why would machines ever need to plot a takeover when we can't do anything without them anyway?"

That such an interesting and important question is brought to an inconclusive end might be a little disappointing, but it's one we just will have to accept. It really is too soon to tell on a lot of things but the future is coming faster than we think. Robots and AI are limited and at the moment not up to our level of intelligence. But things are changing.

One example Singer gives is that robots are only better than us at things like chess and math because math is their language. When it comes to other things, however, it's a different story. Ask a robot if what you're holding is an apple or tomato and it might: compare pictures from a database, examine repeatedly from multiple angles, or even do a DNA test whose data would take a long time to analyze, and still in the end the thing wouldn't be able to say for certain and might give you instead a probability of one or the ohter. On the other hand, a human child could tell you in an instant if something were an apple or tomato with little hesitation or doubt. The machines are getting smarter though. The day is coming when a robot intelligent enough to be able to call someone on the phone and use its voice and wits alone to trick them into thinking it's another human, and it's going to upset a lot of people when it does.

The book's final chapters contain an appeal to the readers that more thought and especially discussion on the issues raised take place. The future is always uncertain to some degree but it only really becomes a problem when it takes us unaware.

The Journey of Shuna

Originally published in 1983, Hayao Miyazaki's The Journey of Shuna is an early work that very much provides a glimpse at themes and concepts the artist would eventually flesh out to a greater extent in future works "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" and "Princess Mononoke". In many ways it feels almost like a rough draft of those later two works. It is short, done entirely in watercolor, and almost never even uses captions, instead sprinkling what little dialogue it has amongst descriptive sentences that give it the quality and feel of an old story book rather than traditional manga.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the perspective that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

The story begins in an isolated valley whose inhabitants work very hard to scrape an existence out of the soil. They raise livestock as well, but due to the difficulty of life, their numbers dwindle, with members of the younger generation growing smaller. Shuna, the prince of the small kingdom, is looked up to by the people and feels a great responsibility for them. He one day happens upon a dying traveler who tells him of a strain of golden wheat that could greatly ease his people's suffering, but the grain lies beyond the uncharted wastelands to the west. Deciding he must take the chance to try and find the grain, Shuna prepares some supplies and a gun and heads off to search for the grain.

From the very beginning, the story has elements in common with other Miyazaki works. The valley setting resembles Nausicaa, and the early scenes from this book recall those of the village from Nausicaa's valley of the wind. Shuna's mount is named Yakul, the same as the red elk Ashitaka's from Mononoke, and the two are more or less identical in appearance and demeanor. The journey west, as well mirrors that of Ashitaka's.

Shuna travels over deserts, mountains, and canyons devoid of life, before these sights make way to forgotten ruins and signs of civilization. He comes across an enclave of female cannibals who try to lure him in before he becomes suspicious of them and flees, only to have to fight them off later when they pursue. He then makes his way to a large, walled free-city full of slave markets and traders. The idea that civilization is corrupt and wicked is demonstrated very well in these scenes. The rotting alleys and starving slave children lie in plain sight of the rich and opulent. An unscrupulous merchant tries to sell Shuna a pair of young girls, claiming they are actually deposed royalty, only to have the elder of the two, who is named Tea (pronounced Tay-Ah, not tee), expose him for a liar right in front of Shuna to the fury of the merchant. Later Shuna laments his feelings of powerlessness at it all. He could sell his gun or Yakul to buy the two girls, but where would it leave him but powerless to defend himself from opportunistic others? He was already warned not to by the girls.

And so he instead makes his way outside the city to camp where he is approached by an old man who gives him still more information on the golden grain he seeks, in exchange for food and the warmth of his fire. The old man tells him that the golden grain can be found in a place he calls "the land of the gods" and that he'll reach it if he continues west to a great precipice and then to the land where "the moon is born and returns to die". The following day, Shuna resolves to free the girls he met earlier by force, and launches a surprise attack on an armed slaver's wagon. The three then flee from the vengeful slavers.

Knowing that they will eventually be overtaken because Yakul is slowed down by the burden of carrying three instead of just one, Shuna gives Yakul over to the girls and then prepares to wait for and ambush the band that is after them. A fight ensues, and Shuna is able to overcome his aggressors, but as the fight ends he sees a large luminous object float across the sky and sink into the hills beyond a canyon in the distance, "the place where the moon returns to die..."

Shuna climbs down shear rock cliffs, past ruins lost in time and the giant bones of extinct beasts to a violent ocean. He falls asleep exhausted only to wake in gentle waters which are now shallow enough to wade across. He sees prehistoric creatures of enormous size swimming in the waters and wandering in ancient forests he encounters beyond. These scenes are very reminiscent of ones in Nausicaa's "Sea of Corruption" and Mononoke's glade of the Forest Spirit. All of these places give the sense that they are untouched by man, untamed and wild but also pristine in this sense as well.

Finally, Shuna comes to a strange valley filled with giants who appear to be the gardeners of this bizarre land. At the center of it all is a large otherworldly structure that upon closer inspection appears to be alive. At night the giant floating "moon" returns to drop the bodies of people into this structure, leading the reader to believe this land is fed and fertilized with human lives. This part of the narrative is very similar to that of the hidden valley and ancient pyramid in the center of Dorok from Nausicaa. It is beautiful and appears fruitful, but hides a sinister aspect which is key to its prosperity, the corruption at the center of the fruit.

Shuna plucks some of the golden grain he finds there, only to discover the entire valley seems to know he has done so the instant it occurs. The giants shriek and howl and a strange, frightening, unnatural pain pierces Shuna and seems to follow him as he runs back through the forest. When he comes once more to waters, however, he discovers they have again returned to a raging storm of oceans. Trapped and with nowhere else to run he jumps into the torrid waves...

The story then shifts perspective to Tea and her sister, the two slave girls who escaped earlier thanks to Shuna. The two now work very hard under the harsh and demanding servitude of an old woman in a small village. One night, feeling uncomfortable and sensing the same in Yakul, who still remains with them, Tea wanders out into the night to find none other than Shuna, tattered and disoriented and ambling aimlessly in the wilderness. Tea takes him in only to discover he now appears to be mute and also seems to have little or no memory of the past. Despite the burden he has become, Tea continues to care for him, nursing him back to health and planting the seeds he carries in a pouch he had on him, to be harvested next season.

Meanwhile, the old woman Tea is working under has become impatient with her and the burdensome Shuna, whose mind is shattered and is too shellshocked to work with the girls. She demands the girl marry and whole village shows up to a gathering designed for the occasion. Though we have seen her loyalty to Shuna, it is at this point that Tea shows some ingenuity of her own as well, by choosing carefully the conditions of the test her new husband will have to pass. The test she puts forth is that the one who can ride upon Yakul, who becomes rebellious and fiercely shakes off anyone who tries to mount him, will be the one who takes her hand in marriage. It is a test that all the men in the village fail at, until Shuna, still speechless and weak approaches the beast who becomes immediately calm in the presence of its former master.

From here the story proceeds a bit more easily. Tea and Shuna are married, and eventually Shuna recovers his speech. The two continue to grow and harvest the golden wheat, expanding the fields and prospering while fighting off threats from outside. The story ends as the day comes when Shuna, Yakul, Tea and her sister pack their things and get ready to head back to Shuna's hometown, thus beginning yet another journey.

* * *

In addition to the aforementioned similarities it has with other Miyazaki works, The Journey of Shuna also has an affinity with several ancient myths and folktales. Shuna traverses a large expanse of land and colossal sights of nature, through deserts, across oceans, and into chasms, to see things few others ever have. I'm reminded in some ways of epics like those of Gilgamesh and also Odysseus and (in a more recent example) Conan the Barbarian who also took unbelievable journeys.

The struggle of Man vs Nature (a common motif in Miyazaki works) is in this story portrayed more as a natural strife than a direct, literal conflict between the two, with only the section of the valley of the gods having any kind of supernatural aspects to it. For the most part the Man vs Nature struggle is demonstrated by the characters clawing away at the soil to survive with only moderate success. The desperation of the land they inhabit is what fuels the slavery and persecution that plagues it. And so the cruelty of human nature makes it appearance (another trait common to Miyazaki's work, especially Nausicaa's depictions of war).

The way Shuna takes the grain is very much like Prometheus's stealing fire from the gods, or instead of the Apple of Eden being picked by Adam and Eve, we have here Shuna picking the wheat. Man's prosperity is seen as being very much an endeavor of taking an advantageous item from gods who are controlling or oppressive.

The final part of the story owes much to the fairy tales of the more recent past like the Brothers Grimm as well as fables and parables like those of Aesop. Strong female characters are another hallmark of many Miyazaki works and centering in on Tea, the tone of the story shifts very much from one of action, adventure, and exploration to one where the girl's wit and determination are necessary for success, being that this girl doesn't break/fight convention by simply acting like a boy. The test she puts her suitors through at the end is evocative of tests in other fairy tales like the glass slipper in Cinderella, Arthur's Sword in the Stone, and the countless times we've heard that only a kiss from the true and destined person will break a particular curse. Unlike those examples, however, no magical hand of fate is involved on the protagonist's behalf, causing them to rely instead on their intelligence to think through the situation and bearing more in common to the test facing Chihiro at the end of Spirited Away, another Miyazaki work.

Other elements of fairy tales include the original story to Shuna by the dying traveller and later the old man who helps him, demonstrating a character shunned by nearly all in society, but who actually has useful knowledge to be given to the main character when they show that person a rare kindness.

Shuna could be an interesting little supplement for those who like Miyazaki, or could possibly serve for those who are interested in a quick introduction to his work. I'm not sure if this has been published in English or not, but it's a fast read at only about 150 pages, and comprised more of images than words, also making it a good choice for those studying Japanese and want an exercise that isn't too daunting.

Shuna and Yakul in the free-city

The three fleeing on Yakul

The slavers in pursuit

The ancient forest

The strange fortress in the valley

The three heading home

The Warrior Spirit: Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian

Above: Some of the Conan the Barbarian artwork by Frank Frezetta, whose images immortalized the character

I can still remember the first time I watched "Conan the Barbarian" with my father as a young boy. The brutality and violence stayed with me long after the initial viewing, but more than anything else it was the story, the characters, and the powerful narrative which burrowed its way into my fuzzy memories. I've since gone on to read many of the comics, and even sought out the original works by Robert E. Howard trying to trace things back to their origins, wondering what it is about the character exactly which inspires me so much.

There's something about the whole tale that just feels very ancient and sweeping. Howard's incredible prose has much to do with this, but there are certain thematic elements at work as well which I've noticed more recently. The idea of a person of humble birth rising to the level of general and then king is indeed an inspirational one. Much of what gives the Conan stories their appeal is their mythological feel, and while this concept has been done many times before in countless fairytales with commoners becoming princes (or princesses) and living happily ever after, the story of Conan was one of strength, power, brutality, savagery. All of this came to lend the tale a quality of the oldest stories, a realistic hardness, and a world without rules. When Howard created Conan, the U.S. was in its Depression Era and a sort of bitter harshness reflecting that period pervades many of his other stories as well.

Those stories were originally published in the monthly pulp-magazines of the era with little bits and pieces of each published a few pages at a time in an issue. Every now and then, works that were written as pulp -mere, consumable entertainment for the masses- manage to acheive something higher: a sort of literary and artistic greatness that reaches the attention, appreciation, and analyzation of scholars as well as the common man. Sherlock Holmes provides a good example of another early, cheap magazine to do so; in more recent times, films like Star Wars; and manga like Naussicaa have done so as well. It's strange in a way to think that Conan's fate in the stories (man of lowborn birth becomes a king), mirrors that of the character's success and popularity in the mainstream, literally a common man's form entertainment that has risen to a higher level.

Above: Copy of the original, unabridged Robert E. Howard stories edited into a single book.

Howard was a proliflic writer and he did manage to turn out quite a bit of material on Conan, though this has now been absolutely dwarfed by the combined amount that has now been produced by other writers continuing to give his creation's life. Howard's life itself is another very interesting story as well, but as far as the character's history is concerned, the fact that its phenomenal success occurred after Howard's untimely death is what left publishers in a bind to release more Conan material. Thus free reign was given to others to create more stories and sate the appetites of fans. While there are certainly a lot of purists out there whose loyalty is to Howard, a person could also very well argue that one of the best things about Conan is all the additional work which has been produced over the years since his death that is much in keeping with the spirit of the original.

Yet another unusual parrellel the Conan character shares with many mythological stories throughout history, is that his saga has been passed on from one story teller to another. This is much the same as many trully ancient legends whose origins predate writing, which were passed on orally, and often embellished and added upon with each new storyteller. I remember (reading, ironically enough) a criticism by an oral storyteller on the written word and its effects on relating these stories. They seemed to feel that the written word was lifeless, like it was dead even though it was certainly more accurate than recounting things orally. While not an oral tale, Conan, like many other stories is still an ongoing one; it is continuously being retold differently and being added to as well by new writers and artists and even actors.

Getting back to the character and the story itself though, I once more find myself asking what it is about them I like. Perhaps more than anything else, it's the idea of the path he took in life: the road of the wanderer, the road of the warrior. There are certainly truths of a special sort to be discovered in such a way of life which one might not otherwise know: To learn about life by taking it from others, to find meaning in the struggles and conflicts even as they escalate in to the extremes of violence, to know many friends and lovers and watch them come and go in the thoroughfare of an eventful life, to celebrate in excessiveness and try to find the limits of joy and pleasure in such revelry, to live each day like it might be the last. There's something absolutely primal about the character and the stories that penetrates the soul of the reader and never relinquishes its grip.

* * *

A quick excerpt from the story "The Queen of the Black Coast", my favorite of all of Conan's lines and an excellent example of Howard's poetic, mythical sounding prose:

"I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death... I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and the stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exutation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion, I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.

-Conan the Barbarian
from, The Queen of the Black Coast
by Robert E. Howard-

Before the Dawn

Book Review: Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade

While not as all-encompassing as Jared Diamond's Third Chimpanzee or Richard Dawkins's Selfish Gene, I must say that this book left a very deep impression on me. As someone who has been interested in the unrecorded prehistory of man for a long time, I found this book to be something of a welcome update of what was started by the two titles I mentioned earlier. The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, The Third Chimpanzee in 1991. Since the mapping of the human genome in 2003, the results of many new studies have been released, shedding light onto what were once murkier areas in the gaps of what we know of the gene's influence on man and man's prehistory respectively. I really recommend this book for anyone interested on the subject.

The first couple of chapters consist of an introduction and then quick summarization of what would be a basic anthropology course. A highly accurate visual system was needed to help judge distances between trees properly and safely make leaps, such that nearly all primates view the world more or less exactly as we do. Opposable thumbs for a good, strong grip on branches and boughs of many sizes and shapes. Bipedal movement allowing a farther, more commanding view, the ability to carry things while moving, and also just a more energy efficient way of getting around when compared to the knuckle walk which was the common mode of movement before.

It is the following chapters, however, where the book really separates itself from the others, and while it does draw on past disciplines like archeology and paleolinguistics -again Third Chimpanzee but also Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel- for some of its historical conclusions, the recent genetic findings are what really distinguish it. An early example, the approximate dating of when humans first began wearing clothes, demonstrates how we can learn what was never before possible, provided we ask the right questions.

Dating the Development of Several Uniquely Human Charateristics

The louse, a parasite which cannot survive more than six to eight hours away from the warmth of a human body, was once confined to the tiny island of hair on the human head for a period of time between when man lost his body hair and began wearing clothing. This advent, it seems, gave rise to the body louse which had adapted its claws specifically to grasp clothing. By comparing either the Y chromosomes on males -which are passed unchanged and directly from fathers to sons- or mitochondrial DNA -passed unchanged from mothers to daughters- geneticists can now to come up with an approximate date for when species split into new branches. In this particular case, DNA from the body louse and the regular louse were both analyzed, showing a split of the two branches about 72,000 years ago, thus giving scientists that approximate date for the adoption of wearing clothes.

There were several other interesting revelations as well. An obvious next question might be to ask about the loss of body hair. A few possible reasons are given as to why it might have happened -the need to sweat to cool down the body, ridding oneself of parasites, preferences in sexual selection- but one thing that might be a little more certain is that darker skin developed from this advent as protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays which destroy folic acid, an essential nutrient. While our forebears' skin was almost certainly pale originally, as it is in chimps, dark skin would have been necessary to survive in the African sun without body hair to protect oneself. The melanocortin receptor gene which regulates skin pigmentation provides the key. By dating the divergence of this gene towards darker skin, an approximate date of 1.2 million years ago seems to be when humans lost most of their body hair.

The original ancestral population of humans who left Africa would've almost certainly had black skin. Paler skin confers an advantage to colder climates because it lets in more sunlight and allows for better synthesis of Vitamin D. It appears to have come about much later, after humans had left Africa and some were living in far colder temperatures to the north which would become even colder during a glacial period 20,000 years ago. The emergence of lighter skin, which occurs in both Asians and Europeans, developed twice, each time independently of the other.

New Data on the Human Diaspora out of Africa

Genetics have also allowed scientists to estimate that the approximate size of the original human population in Africa when some finally began their exodus out of the continent was about only 5,000, and that this occured about 50,000 years ago. From that number all people on this planet have emerged. Unlike previously believed, humans appear not to have taken the northern route out of Africa past Egypt and through the Fretile Crescent, but rather to have gone across the lower portion of the Red Sea which would've been about 100 feet lower at the time. The reason for this, probably would've been that the Fertile Crescent was already inhabited by Neanderthals who would've provided fiercesome competition for the early ancestors of man, and consequently had boxed them in, unable to leave Africa until that point.

Testing the genetics of modern societies shows that people in general have had a tendancy to live, marry and raise children in about the same area, a trend that has continued to this day but was even more pronounced before 100 years ago and the advent of modern transportation. From this data, early man seems to have crossed the Red Sea, then the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula to India, then continued southward on landbridges existing at that time and primitive boats to Australia, populating on the way what are now some the Pacific Islands, the Phillipines, and New Guinea. The Australian Aborigines, New Guinea Highlanders and jungle dwelling Negritos of the Phillipines, Malaysia, and Adaman Islands appear to be the closest relatives of the Khoisan, who themselves represent one of the longest, most ancient branches of DNA amongst humans who stayed in Africa.

The primitive technology of early man was comparable with that of the Neanderthals, and due to that groups larger body size and stronger muscles, they would've made more than a formidable match. But the forebears of modern humans had a capacity for higher intellect, and perhaps coupled with their ability for more advanced language (a subject the book dwells on much more extensively), eventually were able to shape for themselves a more successful package of subsistence, environmental adaptation, weapons, and other artifacts. Thus the long struggle between the two began to turn against the Neanderthals as modern man began to slowly expand his territory, occupying more and more space that once belonged to Neanderthals until their extinction.

The question of whether humankind's early ancestors mixed and interbred with the Neanderthals has long vexed those who study them, but now at last seems to be finally getting put to rest. By extracting and examining a small sample of DNA from a Neanderthal specimen, a team from Munich managed to show that extremely little to no interbreeding occurred between the two species.

Some Final Considerations on Man's Evolution

In light of what new, genetic testing has taught us, the book makes many conclusions along the way to its destination. Of these, the most important is the thought that modern man has continued to evolve on the genetic level even since leaving Africa and all the way up to the present. It has long been generalized that the most important changes occurred before 50,000 years ago, at which point, man became "anatomically modern" and has remained in a state of genetic stasis ever since. This argument proceeded from the idea that man hasn't needed to adapt any further to his environment. But to assume this would be to assume that no other kind of strife plagued mankind up until today, and that no other accustomization was necessary.

The book delves further into the idea that mankind didn't just need to be "anatomically modern" to scale the heights of today, but also "behaviorally modern". In examining this, one has to consider that many aspects to the behavior of man had to be adjusted (the ability to trust others and consequently work with them, give up the individual freedom that a state of nature provides, adjust to sedentary life, etc...) One also has to begin considering how and what genes have an influence on these behaviors. Genes don't just determine physical characteristic like strength, height, skin, hair, and eye color, but also things like susceptibility to diseases, level of aggressive behavior, propensity to lie to others or cheat on one's partner, things some of which have traditionally been more associated with psychology than biology.

That mankind hasn't ceased to evolve on the genetic level might be most evident in the world of difference between how we lived 50,000 years ago and how we live now. How we shall proceed to evolve into the future might just depend on to what extent we are willing or able to harness genetic manipulation to further achieve our goals.