Reviews and Comments

As with a previous title by the same author, 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, this book explores, as the title suggests, scientific ideas that are at the edge of our understanding. If you're a science buff and you have a tendency to favor non-conformist ideas about how things work, this book will take you through a ride on many (11, at the top level of uncertainty) such ideas and theories that ultimately can change the way you (or we, as whole) think about the universe we happen to inhabit.

Michael Brooks writing is very engaging. Though many subjects here treated are not easy to understand, his approach makes them very much palatable for those of us who are outsiders to the specific developments of the many branches of science. In that sense, this book, besides providing an easy read (as easy as your understanding can go, but accessible nonetheless), also provides you with a wealth of information about science edgy topics that will make at the least challenge some of your philosophical assumptions and bring about some useful and meaningful doubts about the way you understand life, the universe and everything else.

Douglas Adams passage cited on this book.

This is the kind of book that can be an eye-opener. Maybe one can find in it more juice if one has already some inkling about psychedelic experiences and studies, or if you have had some experience with hallucinatory substances, especially ayahuasca, which is central to the thesis of the book.

At times Narby seems to get too carried away with his part of the argument, but that also makes this book a very humane one, as it carries us through a simplified stream of consciousness as an idea evolves throughout the author's investigative effort.

In the end, what one takes from it depends on how open-minded one might be to face the world around us under different conceptual assumptions than those we (westerners, particularly) are mostly used. In any case, it's a good book to show how thinking outside-the-box can be achieved and how defocalizing (using Narby's word) one's attention while trying to solve a problem can lead to very interesting results. If for nothing else, this book would already be worth a reading.

If you are interested in thinking about human nature from the perspective of biology (or sociobiology, as Wilson defends), this is one of the books where you should start. Though a bit dated (understandably, for it was published in 1978), the discussion started with this book (or openly stated with its publication) is still very contemporary, for there is still a huge gap between the so-called Human Sciences (with its many socio studies varieties) and its more mythical (or ideological) premises, and the hard sciences, that fully accept (or to a great extent) the evolutionary theory as the basis for their work and understanding.

What Wilson wants with this book is to make the biological knowledge as the basis for all social sciences, as it is already happening in many fields (evolutionary psychology, behavioral economics, etc.). If you are already acquainted with the history of the evolution (almost a pun) of the social sciences at large, probably this book with look a bit quaint, since it misses (again, understandably) many of the subtleties of the contemporary discussions around these problems. However, if you, like me, do not have such a thorough knowledge about these issues, this book comes very handy, as it serves as a good introduction to the historical development, as well as to the scientific basis, to the problematic leading to Wilson's sociobiological proposal.

Are you an asshole? If you are, this book probably won't even show on your radar. If you are not, maybe this is not the kind of thing you want to give too much thought or consideration (who cares about assholes anyway?).

In any case, the author throws a compelling theory on the whole phenomenon of assholery, something many of us readers are familiar with by having been subject to its manifold manifestations (usually us being the victims of someone's intended or unintended assholing).

The question remains: are assholes worth of a theory? Is it worth to devote a whole book to this subject? In a sense, yes, for the book stands as evidence that you can indeed explore and theorize about this troublesome attitude. And the author believes he has compelling evidences that assholes are wreaking havoc on our society, as he tries to reason through the many evidences the world, unfortunately, provides us (are we living the golden age of assholery?). In the end this is a question of ethics. If we accept assholery as a thing, we have to deal with it and try to find solutions to the many problems assholes bring about to our societies.

So, is this your cup of tea? If you're onto societal critique with a sarcastic twist and a philosophical grounding, this book is right for you. If you're not, maybe you won't lose that much by skipping over this title.