Rowan Hooper - Superhuman: life at the extremes of our capacity

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Copyright 2018 by Dr. Rowan Hooper

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2018

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Jacket design by Christopher Lin

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-5011-6871-0

ISBN 978-1-5011-6872-7 (ebook)

To Laura

A few years ago, I found myself at a conference of primatologists. At the drinks reception I enthusedI thought to a sympathetic scientistabout how like us chimps were, and how the differences between us were just a matter of degree. I was very pro-chimp; perhaps I was trying to ingratiate myself among the primatologists. But my stance also reflected the stories Id been writing, about animals with traits once thought to be uniquely human. There were wild chimps seen using sticks as dolls, As a journalist I liked the fact that there was, as I saw it, a lack of uniqueness in humans, as I felt it brought out the similarity between us and other animals, and could even increase empathy between us and them.

Wineglass in hand, I blithely asserted that there was nothing unique about us humans. And look at the genetics, too, I said. Were practically identical. The primatologist Id been chatting with smiled an assassins smile, and said: Can chimps build their own LHC, then?

That single remark brought down years of my thinking that we and chimps were so alike. It was just after the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland had been used to discover the Higgs boson. The scales fell from my eyes. Its not that I had been overstating what animals were capable of: I had been underestimating humans. It seems ridiculous now, absurd even. The primatologist might as well have asked when a chimp last walked on the moon, or painted Guernica . Sure, chimps are wonderful, intelligent animals, but the remarkable thing is not how smart they are, but how utterly amazing we are. As a biologist, I studied animal behavior in the field. I marveled at the solutions that natural selection finds to the problems of making a living and finding a mate. I still do. What I sometimes forgot to appreciate were the marvels of human behavior and ability.

In some ways this book is an attempt to put myself right on that point. Ive set out to meet people at the top end of human potential, across a range of traits. People who are the best in the world at the things we revere, such as intelligence, musical ability, bravery, and endurance. Well also encounter the people who are at the extremes of the things that matter most to us, such as happiness and longevity. Its a celebration of the very best we can be. In meeting them, well marvel at the diversity and potential of the human species, well try to understand how they personally got to where they areand well deconstruct them. Such people might be superhuman, but theyre not supernatural. I want to understand how these superpeople do what they do in order to bring them closer to the rest of us. Some of the stardust might rub off on us, and it might give us a glimpse of humans in the future. Understanding what lies beneath extreme ability in no way destroys the magic; if anything, it deepens our appreciation and teaches us about our everyday lives. Moreover, we might not be superhuman ourselves, but we do have a greater capacity than we realize. We have hidden depths. These traits are the things that humans yearn to be better at and strive to improve.

For most of the characteristics well look at, its fairly easy to decide who is the best in the world, even if my technique is nonscientific. Im defining the best singers in the world as the ones who can earn a living from their trade; the people with the greatest endurance as those who can run the farthest; the longest-lived people in the worldwell, they are self-defined. For other traits, such as bravery and intelligence, its more subjective, but I hope to convince you that Ive chosen worthy candidates.

The book is in three parts. Part One, Thinking, looks at traits driven by cognitive ability. It takes case studies representing intelligence, memory, language ability, and focusthe ability to concentrate the mind. In Part Two, Doing, Ive picked out bravery, singing, and endurance as abilities that humans have taken further than any other animal. Finally, in Part Three, Being, Ive selected longevity, resilience, sleeping, and happiness as traits that at first glance just seem to be part of us, but which some people manage to do at a much higher level. For each characteristic I look at the scientific understanding of how people get to the peak of potential, and the relative importance of nature and nurturegenetics and environmentin each case. There are many clues as to how my superhumans became so good, and lots to learn for the rest of us. The eleven traits and abilities certainly dont capture everything that makes us human, but I think they cast a wide net. The haul has reminded me of the sheer richness of the human species and filled me with fire for our extraordinary potential.

Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives.

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

You know it when you see it. I saw it in an orangutan once, a young male in Malaysian Borneo who had been orphaned by deforestation. I was hiking around a protected area of rain forest with a primatologist friend when we came across him.

Because he had been raised in a rehab center, he was well disposed to humans, and, it turned out, especially fond of men. He came bounding over. I was nervous as this juvenile but powerful ape tugged at my clothes and tried to climb up me as if I was a tree. I pushed him away a few times, and he finally sat on his haunches, looked up, and held out his hand. I remember taking the hand and feeling it clasp gently and warmly and softly around mine. I caught his eye. In it there was a complex look, a mixture of exasperation, cajoling, and hope; he was fed up with me pushing him away, but hoped I would understand that he just wanted to play.