Dawn of a Millennium: Beyond Evolution and Culture

The human species is no longer drifting down an evolutionary stream, argues Harth, noting that our last significant genetic changes occurred at least 100,000 years ago. The Syracuse University physicist asserts that our ready anger and combative temperament, traits useful to hunter-gatherers, offer little advantage in a modern world facing nuclear holocaust, overpopulation and environmental catastrophe. Harth views near-total nuclear disarmament as a precondition for human survival. He sketches a theory of the autonomous mind arising from a ``creative loop,'' and urges that we take control of our destiny through rational analysis and self-determination. The effect of the reflective essay is diminished by its scattershot approach to topics ranging from evolution, brain research and language to science and magic, acid rain and the storage of radioactive wastes. Illustrations. (Jan.)