The Gilgamesh Gene

What was it that initially separated us from other primates? What was different about Homo sapiens 30,000 years ago that predicated our survival and the demise of our closest rivals, the Neanderthals? Why are we obsessed with the notion that GDP is the only possible measure of progress? If we are able to predict our own demise, why can we not do anything to stop it? The Gilgamesh Gene is about the human condition, and in particular how it is that mankind has brought itself, along with most other species on earth, to the brink of extinction.