You are an academic in the somewhat obscure field of medieval military history. What drove you to take on such a big theme as the rise of Homo sapiens?
Mainly the realization that humankind is about to make probably the most important decisions in history. After four billion years during which life on Earth evolved according to the principles of natural selection, science is now giving us the possibility of changing the most basic rules of life and starting a new kind of evolution, evolution by intelligent design.
And secondly, science is giving us the opportunity to start creating non-organic life. The combination of these two things, the movement from natural selection to intelligent design and from organic to non-organic life, could be the greatest revolution in the history of life. It’s up to us to make the best use of this opportunity and for this we need a better grasp of our place in the world and where we came from.
