| New book on human evolution considers fresh perspective on human condition |
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On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, Death from a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe by Paul M. Bingham and Joanne Souza is a history-making expansion of evolutionary theory
STONY BROOK, N.Y. (MMD Newswire) February 11, 2010 -- Charles Darwin's theory of evolution can be considered to be one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. Two centuries later, a theory taking Darwin's picture of human origins to a new level has been published by Paul M. Bingham and Joanne Souza, two faculty members from Stony Brook University and authors of Death from a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe. "Our evidence indicates that humans are the first animal in the history of the Earth with the capacity to project coercive threats from a distance," Bingham said. "Being able to project threat from a distance revolutionized our social behavior in a surprisingly humane way. We still behave this way, 2 million years after our origins, when we deploy handguns in law enforcement, insisting on cooperative social behavior from one another. These insights unexpectedly transform how we think about ourselves, our history and our future." In their new book, Bingham and Souza describe a theory of "human uniqueness" that explains how humans evolved to be so different from all other species on Earth. Their theory is based on humans' capacity to suppress conflicts of interest between non-related individuals. According to Bingham and Souza, selfish behavior in non-human animals destroys social cooperation, but humans can forestall this selfishness in one another. "This uniquely human approach to requiring social cooperation is revolutionary. It drives the evolution of language and of our large, powerful minds. It is also the secret to understanding our history, from the rise of agriculture and the first states through the panglobal economics and politics of our common future. We find that what others think is the cause of human uniqueness such as tool use, our cognitive ability or our language are all effects of our ability to manage the conflict of interest problem as the underlying cause," Souza adds. Death from a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe is available for sale online at Amazon.com and through additional wholesale and retail channels worldwide. About the Authors Joanne Souza was a highly successful business executive and a health and education communications consultant. More recently she joined the faculty at Stony Brook University. Her Masters of Science in psychology is from Walden University where she continues her study of health psychology. She has spent the past six years researching and publishing in education and in human behavior, evolution and history. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, summa cum laude, from Stony Brook University, receiving the prestigious Undergraduate Recognition Awards for Excellence and Outstanding Achievement, and Leadership and Service. MEDIA CONTACT: REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST ### The views and opinions expressed in this press release do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of CreateSpace or its affiliates. |