At our last meetup, we talked about possible human futures via our discussion of The Singularity is Near. This month we'll turn to a discussion of the past 10,000 years and the impact of Civilization on who we have become...

The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution, is the focus of our February 2012 meetup.

From the book summary at Amazon...

A manifesto for and an example of a new kind of history, a biological history, and not just of the prehistoric era Scientists have long believed that the 'great leap forward' that occurred some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked the end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this stunning account of our evolutionary history, top scholars Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending reject this conventional wisdom and reveal that the human species has undergone a storm of genetic change much more recently. Human evolution in fact accelerated after civilization arose, they contend, and these ongoing changes have played a pivotal role in human history...

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Videos, references, and other links and "cheats" about the book... 

• The Wikipedia entry on The 10,000 Year Explosion is here.

•  The website for the book has useful information.

•  Some reviews of the book...

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/be_...

http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/12/recent...

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/12/cochran-...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12344072397...

• A podcast interview of one of the authors...

http://npr.vo.llnwd.net/kip0/_pxn=0+_pxK=10...

• A written interview of one of the authors...

http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/2009/01/...

Feel free to post other useful references about the book for other members...