From the prize-winning author of Adventures in the Anthropocene, the astonishing story of how culture enabled us to become the most successful species on Earth

From the prize-winning author of Adventures in the Anthropocene, the astonishing story of how culture enabled us to become the most successful species on Earth

** 'A wondrous, visionary work' Tim Flannery**, author of The Weather Makers

** Humans are a planet-altering force.** Gaia Vince argues that our unique ability - compared with other species - to determine the course of our own destiny rests on a special relationship between our genes, environment and culture going back into deep time. ** It is our collective culture, rather than our individual intelligence, that makes humans unique.** Vince shows how four evolutionary drivers - Fire, Language, Beauty and Time - are further transforming our species into a transcendent superorganism: a hyper-cooperative mass of humanity that she calls Homo omnis. Drawing on leading-edge advances in population genetics, archaeology, palaeontology and neuroscience, Transcendence compels us to reimagine ourselves, showing us to be on the brink of something grander - and potentially more destructive.

'Richly informed by the latest research, ** Gaia Vince's colourful survey fizzes like a zip-wire** as it tours our species' story from the Big Bang to the coming age of hypercooperation' ** Richard Wrangham**, author of The Goodness Paradox

** 'Wonderful ... enlightening' Robin Ince**, The Infinite Monkey Cage