Good ideas never go away, it seems human adulthood is remarkable for its playfulness. No matter how advanced the technology, gadgets are, after all, just grown-ups鈥� toys. Back in the 1960s Dutch historiographer John Huizinga鈥檚 book Homo ludens created a storm of interest. Now Clive Bromhall鈥檚 The Eternal Child (Ebury/Random House, 拢7.99) tries to pinpoint the moment in our evolutionary history that distinguishes us from our primate cousins, and reckons it鈥檚 arrested development: humans just don鈥檛 mature, they stay childish.
So did we do this of our own free will? Or was that no choice at all, just genetic hardwiring? Examine this thorny issue with the help of Daniel Dennett鈥檚 Freedom Evolves (Penguin, 拢8.99).
