Human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth, posits Mark Bertness, who argues that we are the products of the same self‑organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways that opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants.