Evolution Isnt What It Used To Be - The Augmented Animal And The Whole Wired World

Some books age gracefully. Others become hopelessly dated within weeks of publication. And then there are books like Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be, which somehow manages to be simultaneously a fascinating time capsule and a surprisingly perceptive glimpse of the future. It is one of those rare volumes that invites you to ask, "Surely they couldn’t have seen that coming?" before quietly revealing that, in several respects, they rather did.

Published in 1996 by W. H. Freeman, Walter Truett Anderson’s wonderfully provocative title immediately signals that Charles Darwin is about to be dragged, politely but firmly, into the Information Age. The old story of evolution as a slow biological process is, Anderson argues, no longer the whole picture. Humanity has begun modifying not only its environment but itself, creating an "augmented animal" whose development is increasingly shaped by technology, culture and the rapidly expanding web of global communication.

Reading it today is a curious experience. Written before smartphones, social media, streaming video and the modern AI revolution, Anderson was already exploring what might happen when humans became permanently connected by digital networks and increasingly reliant upon technology as an extension of their own minds. At the time this may have sounded rather speculative. Today many readers will simply glance at the glowing rectangle in their hand and nod slowly.

The book roams confidently across evolutionary biology, psychology, philosophy, sociology and emerging technology, asking whether humanity is entering an entirely new phase of evolution. Are we still simply products of natural selection, or have we become active participants in redesigning ourselves? It is a question that has only become more relevant with every passing decade, even if most of us now spend more time debating software updates than evolutionary theory.

There is a wonderfully satisfying irony running through the whole enterprise. Evolution spent millions of years producing a species intelligent enough to invent computers. Those computers then became capable of changing the way the species thinks about evolution. Somewhere, one suspects, Darwin would have required a very long sit down and perhaps another notebook.

One of Anderson’s greatest strengths is his willingness to speculate boldly while remaining grounded in science and philosophy. This is not doom-laden prophecy, nor is it breathless technological evangelism. Instead, it is an invitation to think seriously about what happens when biology, culture and technology stop behaving as separate subjects and begin intertwining in increasingly complicated ways.

It also captures the extraordinary optimism of the mid-1990s, when the internet still felt like an unexplored frontier rather than somewhere people argued about garden fences with complete strangers at two o’clock in the morning. The "Whole Wired World" promised unprecedented connection, collaboration and knowledge. Anderson asks readers to consider what such connectivity might ultimately mean for human identity itself. The answers remain intriguingly open.

Our copy is in good condition, presenting as a clean, solid and thoroughly readable example of this increasingly interesting work. It has aged rather better than many of the predictions made during the early internet era, and remains an attractive addition to any shelf devoted to science, technology, philosophy or the endlessly fascinating question of what on earth our species is doing next.

Whether your interests lie in evolution, cognitive science, digital culture, futurism or simply books that ask audacious questions before everyone else starts asking them too, Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be offers a rewarding intellectual journey. Some of its predictions may prompt a smile, others may feel uncannily familiar, and a few might leave you wondering whether the future arrived while nobody was paying proper attention.

Exactly the sort of thoughtful, forward-looking volume that Crappy Old Books delights in rescuing from obscurity. After all, second-hand books are themselves rather evolutionary: they survive, adapt, acquire new owners and continue spreading ideas long after many supposedly cutting-edge technologies have quietly become obsolete.

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