I liked the material, but Hogan's voice tends to drone so I had to rewind a few times. ( )

I was enthralled by this book. I got to see the wide ranging ideas of a noteworthy biologist and his approach to the complexity of the animal kingdom. Wilson organizes evolution into six transitions:
1. Origin of Life.
2. The invention of complex cells.
3. The invention of sexual reproduction (DNA & multiplication of species).
4. The origin of organisms composed of multiple cells.
5. The origin of societies.
6. The origin of language.

The idea or process of altruism is a crucial factor in evolution. With so many species abounding allows scientists to better codify the process of reconstructing what happens in evolution. But eusociality is not a common outcome, where the individual organisms allow themselves certain different roles of living such as bees and wasps. Natural selection shows us how various species compete and move to possibly more cooperation (or not). The aspect of violence is prominent within higher mammals, particularly humans and sows that nature is not really gentle. But Wilson closes with the virtue of storytelling among all human societies. ( )

One of the things I like best about reading E.O. Wilson's books is his ongoing willingness and excitement to engage with new and recent scholarship and discovery. He's not just repeating the same ideas he wrote about forty years ago: he's revising them and updating them based on current research, and also putting long-held views in conversation with the new data. ( )

Nice concise treatment with a deeper discussion of the tension between individual selfishness and group cooperation. Lots of examples from the insect world that is Wilson's expertise. ( )