Guide for Humans is the website for How to Be Human, an illustrated book in progress about life from birth onwards. It combines research, rough pencil-style drawings and a report card for a species that did not ask to be assessed.
The project is led by Cam, with AI assistance in drafting, research and illustration. The drawings are AI-generated and revised through editorial review. They are comic illustrations, not photographs or records of real people.
How the facts are checked
Factual claims are checked against linked research papers and relevant official guidance. Numbers lead to source notes explaining what a study measured, who took part and where the conclusion needs care. A result from one small sample is not a rule for every person.
The report-card marks, household scenes and punchlines belong to the Guide. They are not clinical scores. Simplified diagrams are illustrations of a mechanism, not precise anatomical measurements.
What “checked” means here
Source checking is editorial work. It does not mean a clinician has independently reviewed or endorsed the whole book. Material about birth and child development is general information; it cannot assess an individual child or replace personal medical advice.
Corrections and versions
This is a work in progress. Earlier reading copies are retained, and downloadable PDFs have dated filenames so a revision can be identified. The web chapter and its PDF can be compared directly.
- 25 October 2026: Birth illustrated v4 and Three review v2 published as the first web chapters.
- Three, review v2: replaced unexplained statistical shorthand with plain language, clarified the passage about remembering an earlier belief, removed a confusing joke and corrected the nursery drop-off drawing.
- Birth, illustrated v4: includes the caesarean-birth box and sourced skull-moulding illustration; revised wording and drawing labels distinguish approximate values and simplified diagrams from exact measurements.
- 25 October 2026: added the short articles on lying and asking why, with their own sources and study limits.
Read the work so far
Birth starts with the four instructions issued on arrival. Three covers early lies, questions, crying and being left at nursery. The shorter articles answer why three-year-olds lie and why children keep asking why.
One email
The book notification form is for one email when the book is ready. The address will be used for that email and nothing else, then deleted. Signing up does not buy or reserve a copy.