highly enjoyable

it makes one think about new ways of seeing life. I loved the comparison with the animal world.

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Great book

Fantastic look at how we coexist as humans and have done through history. Love it.

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Incredibly enjoyable

Thorough and uniquely easy to understand.It has a lovely flow to it.A definite must listen.

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Interesting and well read

Very interesting. Society is in the style of Hobbs linked to a super organism, with goals and decires. Bloom supports his argument with a range of historical, anthropological and biological observations. Showing patterne we share with animals and through time and cultures. It is a warning about where the west is going, since we lost our understanding of why we are in the top.
A great listen.

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Nice provocation

Lucifer Principle weaves a well-written and compelling narrative that is bound to shock the reader out of her ideological stupour. This style provides a healthy immunization against some of the illusions and self-deceptions that we all, by nature and education, live under. Thus broken free from dogmas, Bloom jolts the reader to freely exploring the link between dominance hierarchies, violence, genes, memes, and social groups. The very same passion that cures cancer often amplifies our self-righteousness into a blinding plea for world domination.

The book is well-researched and contains numerous fascinating and illustrative stories from history. At the same time, it suffers from a selective exposition of facts presented with a strong interpretative slant. I did not like the anti-Islamic rants that went on for way too long. And I did not like the many dubious empirical generalisations that appeared one-sided and based on anecdotal evidence. I concur with David S. Wilson's estimation, in the foreword, that Bloom has a tendency to exaggerate.

However, Bloom's cynical and pessimistic lens magnifies humanity's dark side in a way that is illuminating. It is illuminating not only of our capacity for evil, but also of the capacity for goodness and excellence in the same human organism. The takeaway lesson, if there is one, is therefore ambivalent. The pitfalls of the Lucifer Principle are ever present in our struggle to self-transcend our animal nature. And yet continually self-transcend we must. To reach for the stars and to perpetuate evolution is a bloody, violent, stressful affair, but without it we face the heat death of the universe. Bloom shows us how we can break free from entropy without succumbing to the worst conquering and genocidal illusions that humanity possesses.

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Good read

Well it is not the most accurate but a real good mix of ideas and views

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Heavy handed sci-fi pop.

I enjoyed this book, but do go into it with a healthy degree of scepticism. It's arguments seem to be based on popular science ideas rather then the research these pop science books are based on (i.e. it often makes reference to Dawkins popularisation of an idea rather the person who actually performed the scientific study), which is ok - & didn't mean the conclusions are 'wrong' - but it does means you are viewing the research through at least two sets of biases. He clearly has an angle and wants to covert you to it, but Hilgartner characterises systems he doesn't approve of (primarily religion or any non-capitalist ideas) so cartoonishly it brings his other conclusions into doubt. His idea of what Christians believe is of a old man with a beard in the sky (i mean most people leave this kind of belief in God in kindergarden; and he thinks America dosn't have an aggressive international policy - clearly these don't reflect the real world). It's a shame Hilgartner can't apply the critical analysis he makes of Muslims and Marxist to his own structures as this would give a more rounded and useful book.

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One of the most frustratingly mixed books I have ever read

70% of this book is a work of real genius and some of the best writing I have ever encountered on the human, (and biological) condition, with truly insightful and novel application of robust research. However the last chapters I found to be just unbearably bad with wild personal generalisations that were quite spectacularly disappointing. Overall absolutely worth the read, perhaps just stop reading 3/4 of the way through!

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1 person found this helpful