Book Review: "Unbound" by Richard L. Currier

You know how I love a good deal and so, I got this one on my phone again, on the cheap. Well, in reality I got it for free but that story is for another time. I'm not hugely into books that go so deep into anthropology that I can't really understand them philosophically speaking but I took my time with this one and it was pretty enjoyable. The book is actually well written, although at the beginning it was fairly hard to get into. However, even though I did feel like I was ploughing through it from time to time, I came out of it alive and pretty well-informed too. So, this book is getting some good marks.

The author argues that human evolution and civilisation were shaped not by one invention but by eight “technologies” that fundamentally expanded human capacities. This is an interesting point but I'm going to be honest with you when I say that at first, I thought it was a little obvious that humanity wouldn't be simply shaped by invention but rather by innovation. These technologies are conceptual rather than merely mechanical: for example, “law” is treated as a system that reorganised human behaviour on a mass scale. It is quite a brilliant concept that law and order are treated as technologies but technically, the author is correct. The book at this point might seem like a bit of a challenge conceptually but I will promise you that it gets more and more interesting the more your go on. It also becomes easier to understand.

The author positions fire as a great human technology, enabling cooking, protection, social bonding, and large-scale brain development. My brain automatically went to an episode of the Simpsons but that's beside the point. He looks upon theories by Richard Wrangham and others and notices how cooking allowed humans to extract more calories from food and shift biological resources into brain growth. This is quite compelling because I honestly thought the 'technology' was probably going to be something dumb like Amazon or something - but in fact, it is technological advancements in thought which allow us to live better.

Language is presented as another technology, transforming human thought from reactive to symbolic and strategic. Oh how I loved reading things like The Epic of Gilgamesh which I find is a cornerstone of linguistic communication - the world's first story written down (that we know of). The author treats language not merely as communication but as cognitive architecture. Through language, humans became capable of metaphor, abstraction, planning, and shared culture. I think the term 'cognitive architecture' (which took me a long time to think of by the way) needs some explaining. I'm basically trying to say that there is more to language than just communication, but there is a literal 'architecture' to our experiences, we build and we share with each other. I could talk all day about this.

Tools and technology emerge as extensions of the human body and mind, allowing early humans to alter environments instead of evolving biologically. The author shows how tools externalised human capabilities: cutting tools replaced teeth, projectiles replaced claws, and containers replaced anatomical limitations. And thus an evolutionary feedback loop grew and grew. As tools grew more complex, humans required more cognitive abilities to design, teach, and improve them. This is a very interesting point as we are now going through the A.I age in which the people building it are so intelligent but the people using it, are well...questionable in intelligence depending on how much they rely on it.

Cities are interpreted as technological systems that reorganised human interaction, creating unprecedented density, innovation, and social complexity. There is an interesting point about urbanisation here that the author makes. He states that urbanisation is a cultural invention that concentrated not only people but also ideas, labour, and power. This goes hand-in-hand with the idea that the industrial revolution was great but it made the poor people even poorer and that has basically been cycling ever since through the era of neoliberalism. The author argues that cities enabled economies of scale, rapid information exchange, and technological acceleration. But then again, they let in new fears about overcrowding, crime and the new requirement for complex government systems that are only there to keep the poor and vulnerable people under the shoe of the big guys. Yes, they drove innovation but yes, they also produced a whole hell of terrible things for those who actually did the work.

Religion is treated as a cultural technology that binds groups, legitimises social order, and provides meaning in the face of uncertainty. As someone who is a staunch follower of the philosophy of Christopher Hitchens, I can say that religion has possibly done more harm than good. Mainly because if you need an invisible superhero friend in the sky who sends you threatening brainwaves to make you into a good person then you probably aren't a good person. But, the author also avoids reductive views of religion and instead explores its adaptive functions: anchoring ethics, reinforcing group identity, motivating cooperation, and calming existential anxiety. Even though I feel like there are probably lots of better ways to push these ideas, even ways that don't include a 2'000 year old book by people who didn't know where the sun went at night and still only care about subjugating women and forcing them into rape-culture situations.

In conclusion, Currier concludes that these eight technologies interact to produce the modern world, and he warns that humanity must understand their power to navigate the future responsibly. Well, isn't that the icing on the cake? I just hope the cake hasn't been made by A.I because you never know what you're going to get when you use that thing.

I guess everyone just ignored Currier then, didn't they?