The gentleman, giant in his field, was not shown due respect by Google. Imagine! And they couldn't show him the courtesy of turning down the lights as he requested? Shabby! A very good lecture, however. Thank you, Doctor, for putting up with Google and sharing your story.

I listen to Johanson in my spare time, everytime that is, I have an hour or two to use youtube. He's a wonderful story teller and this lecture is particularly fine. Weird that it was so poorly attended. Shame on Google,

The least you could do to help Don be more comfortable is to dim the lights. What is so hard about that. Maybe next time he can just bring sunglasses. Be considerate of your brilliant and your elders. Must it be said? Thank You

Back in 1983 or so, I purchased his book "Lucy" for my dad in an airport bookstore when I was on my way somewhere for the US Army. He's 82 now and just a couple days ago we were talking about books that influenced or impacted us the most over the years and during the course of the conversation he said that he had read "Lucy" more times than any other book in his library.

Google normally has a full room for their talks - what went wrong? Seems odd to have so few people attending a lecture by such a significant speaker when some of the more frivolous talks have been packed.

Amazing lectures.

Very knowledgeable speech, why the camera is never on focus on slides!!

I'm not driven by how many the audience of a concept are , as much as the quality of the content. Interesting outlook to diffine human diffrentiation to Complex thinking, Cumulative Cultue & Extreme Cooperation. Indeed what makes us unique and complex makes us equaly destructive and self sabotaging.

One would think that a high tech company would have a much better sound system.

Dr. Johanson is a legend in the field. He naturally focuses on his celebrated fossil find, Lucy, and the evolution from Australopithecus to hominids leading to homo erectus, Neanderthals, and homo sapiens. What makes us truly human, however, is not bipedalism, the use of tools, the change in dentition, and the changes in the skull that all paleo-anthropologists discuss at great length. Instead, it is the change 60-75,000 years ago, probably a change in the neo-cortex, that precipitated cultural evolution: language, the capacity for abstract thought, the making of tools to make new tools, and the ability to change the environment rather than merely adapt to it. Dr. Johanson alludes to the exponential changes that followed, but offers no opinion regarding the cause of that change, which seems vital in defining what makes us human. Matt Ridley, the English author known for popularizing advances in biology, discusses in The Rational Optimist, the importance of the exchange of ideas on innovation and the necessity for a sufficient population to perpetuate the cross-fertilization of ideas. But that insight also begs the question. Something happened during the period that changed homo sapiens from just another hominid to the most successful life form on Earth (with the possible exception of ants, termites and hermit crabs). By comparison, homo erectus, Neatherthals, and Denisovans all look more like advanced Australopithecines. For that matter, so do early homo sapiens. Culturally, we became human very recently. We need to know more about the vital change that led to that quantum leap in our evolution.

What an embarrassment, Google. You get one of the top paleoanthropologists in the world to come talk, and you can't even manage to fill the auditorium by half. Telling?

Good speech! Lousy presentation. Camera angles are sluggish.

there is something wrong at around minute 31....

Embarrassing for this great scientist, explorer, and national icon to speak to these sleepy desk jocks. It's Google for God's sake find a way to turn down the lights!

It is surprising to s see that this was such a poorly attended lecture for such an interesting subject.

Bravo Google, keep going, spread science!

Do you want the good or the bad. Clearly it's not Google!

Technically sadly not very good .. the speaker has no microphone set... So we hear nothing, as soon as he moves away. and for the best we see also nothing: the commented pictures are not shown, but instead a speaker without voice . So miserable!

Evolution: It's a tree not a ladder. ; Steven J. Gould

If you are interested in the origins of H. Sapiens (and all other members of the genus), you may enjoy watching a new theory’s short introductory video presentation @@sxjs (8 min), proposing as the birthplace/original natural environment of our species a permanent warm coastal fog most likely existing for 2.6 million years at the periphery of the Irish Sea Glacier (during late Pleistocene).

Nonsense. Read and trust Richard Dawkins.

Google presented this abomination? Good grief. If I had to guess, Dr. Johanson will NOT be back.

Don't try to tell Jokes your not funny and you seem like a bully !! Full of self importance !!