Life Story

What if life on Earth evolved not once - but twice? And what if we're now facing a third phase of evolution? Life on Earth has evolved not once, but twice. First as organic life - from single cells to the astonishing diversity of the natural world. Then as human culture - from hunter-gatherers to cities, empires and global civilisations. In this sweeping and original work, Jonathan Loh reveals a radical idea: culture as a form of life. Unfolding across deep time - from the earliest organisms to the rise of Homo sapiens, from foragers to farmers, from the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution - it uncovers the hidden patterns linking genetics and language, organisms and states, ecosystems and economies, mass extinctions and civilisational collapse. One species has come to dominate the Earth. Yet as machine intelligence gathers pace, Loh asks whether that supremacy is only a phase in life's longer story. What can we learn from our past? And what does this mean for our future?

Originally trained in biology, environmental science and anthropology, DR JONATHAN LOH is an independent scientist and consultant to organisations such as the UN Environment Programme and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) on the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. He was the founding editor of WWF's biennial Living Planet Report, and is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex.