Nonzero: The Logic of Human DestinyIn his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history–and discerning where history will lead us next. In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex by mastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright's narrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, from stone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moral significance–a way of looking at our biological and cultural evolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality has improved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning may itself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, witty, profound, Nonzero offers breathtaking implications for what we believe and how we adapt to technology's ongoing transformation of the world. |
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agriculture American ancient animals anthropologists archaeologists barbarians basic behavior biological evolution biologists Carneiro cells century chapter chief chiefdoms chimps China Chinese civilization consciousness cooperation cultural evolution cultural evolutionism Darwinian dynamic early economic Elvin empire energy Europe Europe's European evolutionary evolved example exploitation freedom game theory genes genetic global Gould growing growth Hayden helped historian human history hunter-gatherer hunter-gatherer societies idea information technology invented Johnson and Earle kin selection kind labor land least less McNeill mean memes Mesoamerica Mesolithic Mesopotamia Middle Ages millennia Ming mitochondria modern moral nations natural selection non-zero-sum games non-zero-sum logic Northwest Coast Indians plants political population printing press prisoner's dilemma problem question reason reciprocal altruism Roman scholars seems sense Shoshone social complexity social structure species status superorganism supranational Teilhard tend theory things tion trade trend Upper Paleolithic villages Wright writing zero-sum