A Foot in the River: Why Our Lives Change -- and the Limits of Evolution

We are a weird species. Like other species, we have a culture. But by comparison with other species, we are strangely unstable: human cultures self-transform, diverge, and multiply with bewildering speed. They vary, radically and rapidly, from time to time and place to place. And the way we live—our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values—seems to be changing at an ever accelerating pace. The effects can be dislocating, baffling, sometimes terrifying. Why is ...