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Loading... The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)by Jared M. Diamond
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  jmattas | Jan 19, 2010 |  I would have given it a 3 1/2 if it had been my first Diamond book but I am fed up of reading the same old stories each time I buy one of his works. (  ) Kuiperdolin | Nov 7, 2009 | Excellent book, well written. Discusses why humans have come out on top of the heap though our genetic makeup varies little from chimps. What does our genetics tell us about our future? Updated information from the 1992 edition. (  ) addunn3 | Apr 26, 2009 | An illuminating work describing the most complex animal on the planet: Humans. Each chapter touches on a unique topic, ranging from genetic similarities with chimps, how we select our sexual partners, origins of art, why humans abuse drugs/tobacco/alcohol, et cetera. Some chapters are more interesting than others, but those with a scientific curiosity should enjoy this. (  ) sailornate82 | Jul 15, 2008 | : American evolutionary biologist, physiologist, biogeographer, lecturer, and nonfiction author. Diamond works as a professor of geography and physiology at UCLA.  sphinx | Jun 2, 2008 | 
 To this day, those who see our species as part of the animal kingdom continue to lock horns with those who see us as separate. While zoologists treat humans as mere animals -- and not even particularly unusual ones given the incredible diversity of life -- many social scientists still place us somewhere between heaven and earth. What is particularly attractive about Jared Diamond's book, "The Third Chimpanzee," is that he tries to strike a balance.
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It's obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It's also obvious that we're a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.
The chapters in The Third Chimpanzee on the oddities of human reproductive biology were later expanded in Why Is Sex Fun? Here, they're linked to Diamond's views of human psychology and history.
Diamond is officially a physiologist at UCLA medical school, but he's also one of the best birdwatchers in the world. The current scientific consensus that "primitive" humans created ecological catastrophes in the Pacific islands, Australia, and the New World owes a great deal to his fieldwork and insight. In Diamond's view, the current global ecological crisis isn't due to modern technology per se, but to basic weaknesses in human nature. But, he says, "I'm cautiously optimistic. If we will learn from our past that I have traced, our own future may yet prove brighter than that of the other two chimpanzees." --Mary Ellen Curtin
(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:10:27 -0500)
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As always, Diamond presents his ideas in a simple, convincing way, easy for a layman to believe... I liked how he went "out on a limb" and gave his speculations in addition to recognized facts.
One thing which I didn't like (or agree with) was his awful pessimism concerning the possibility of humans ever meeting extra-terrestrial beings. His main argument seemed to be the inevitable extinction of the human race, whereas I tend to believe in people. We will survive! (