What Makes us Human?

Note: This post has been cross-posted on Pete on Books.

Yesterday, I posted the following photo on Facebook.

It is the book I intend to read next, once I'm done with Cindy Trimm's Commanding Your Morning and Mbugua Mumbi's Becoming an 'A' Student in Life.
A comment on that Facebook post has made it necessary to explain what the book is all about. And please note this is not a book review at all, just a sneak peek.

Well, this book is inspired by talks that were presented at a symposium held in Oxford, in March 2006.

The book, put simply, is an attempt to answer the following questions:
Are we half ape or half angel? Is it our cognitive abilities, our use of tools, our story-telling, our beliefs, our curiosity, our ability to cook, our culture, that make us human?

These are the book chapters:

1. Imitation Makes us Human
2. Memory, Time and Language
3. Why are Humans not just Great Apes?
4. The Hominid that Talked
5. Half Ape, Half Angel?
6. Material facts from a non-materialist perspective
7. What Makes us Human? Our Ancestors and the Weather
8. Curiosity and Quest
9. Human Evolution and the Human Condition
10. The Place of "Deep Social Mind" in the Evolution of Human Nature
11. Causal Belief Maes us Human
12. The Cooking Enigma.

The book What Makes us Human? is available on Amazon and elsewhere across the web.

The Walkabout Continues :-)

Howdy good people!

Well, it's been quite a while since I last wrote anything online. You see, a few days before April 01, 2011, I decided to re-purpose my entire ComplitCommunications.com web site. This called for much needed time to read, research, train and rejuvenate in readiness for a major comeback in creative writing and communication design.

To this end, I stopped posting on The Walkabout, Complit Design, Green Initiatives in Kenya and the Connect eMagazine blogs. Furthermore, I gracefully exited Facebook, Twitter and online chat. It was no longer necessary to recklessly share my stuff online.

That done, I suddenly realized just how awesome it was to finally have my life back, with minimal distractions and lots of time to read, plan my writing, communication design projects and other pertinent life issues. I started feeling like Blake Richman.

It was while voraciously reading that I came across Laurie's blog. This adventurous writer has in nearly all the posts I read, given me the nudge I needed to get back to writing. It finally dawned on me that I need to continuously write. I do have a lot to share, and it's only by writing that I can best add value both in my life and those of others.

This then, is my initial 'comeback' effort. The other aforementioned Complit blogs and the larger Complit Communications web site will be rolled out at the appointed time in July 2011.
In the meantime, I continue to write as I learn and share on this walkabout - a journey of insight, inspiration and self discovery. Posting will be more frequent than before, very concise, timely and highly relevant. I'll also regularly keep you posted on the books that I am currently writing and the online magazine that my team and I  will launch soon.

Finally, I am further persuaded to continue writing every time I look at Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. This is one book I very strongly recommend to anyone who wants needs to write. In this book, King tells his life story and has some priceless advice for any writer worth his salt.

So to all you out there who love a good read online, it just got better. Stand by for some cool posts, hopefully every day and some interaction on your blog(s) as well.
Cheers!