| dc.description.abstract | The essence of who we are depends on our brains. They
enable us to think, to feel joy and sorrow, communicate
through speech, reflect on the moments of our lives, and to
anticipate, plan for, and worry about our imagined futures.
Although some of our abilities are comparatively new, key
features of our behavior have deep roots that can be traced
to the beginning of life. By following the story of behavior,
step-by-step, over its roughly four-billion-year trajectory, we
come to understand both how similar we are to all organisms
that have ever lived, and how different we are from even our
closest animal relatives. We care about our differences because
they are ours. But differences do not make us superior; they
simply make us different. | vi |
