Tech billionaires talk about colonizing Mars, building grand space stations far from Earth, lengthening life spans, and maybe even eradicating aging and death, or uploading our minds into computers. Well, not so fast, says Adam Becker in this provocative new book.

There’s no question that animals communicate -- but only humans have full-blown symbolic language. So, how did we get here? In The Language Puzzle, archeologist Steven Mithen tries to figure out how we became such a talkative species.

And on the nightstand: Ways of Being, by James Bridle; and Playing Possum by Susana Monsó.