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. |
Contents
The Storm Before the Calm | 3 |
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND | 11 |
The Ladder of Cultural Evolution | 13 |
The Way We Were | 18 |
Add Technology and Bake for Five Millennia | 29 |
The Invisible Brain | 45 |
What Is It Good For? | 54 |
The Inevitability of Agriculture | 65 |
You Call This a God? | 318 |
On Nonzerosumness | 337 |
18 | 338 |
What Is Social Complexity? | 344 |
Notes | 351 |
Laft b 29 45 54 | 353 |
65 | 355 |
78 | 365 |
The Age of Chiefdoms | 78 |
The Second Information Revolution | 93 |
Civilization and So | 107 |
Our Friends the Barbarians | 124 |
Dark Ages | 138 |
The Inscrutable Orient | 155 |
Modern Times | 174 |
And Here We | 195 |
New World Order | 209 |
Degrees of Freedom | 229 |
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIC LIFE | 241 |
The Cosmic Context | 243 |
The Rise of Biological Nonzerosumness | 251 |
Why Life Is So Complex | 265 |
The Last Adaptation | 282 |
3 | 283 |
Noncrazy Questions | 301 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ages American ancient animals barbarians basic become behavior better biological brain called cells century chapter chief chiefdoms China civilization communication complexity consciousness Consider cooperation course created cultural evolution designed direction early economic empire energy Europe European evidence evolved example existence fact force genes given global groups growing growth hand helped human hunter-gatherer idea interest invented isn't Italy Johnson kind labor land least less living logic look matter mean memes moral natural selection non-zero-sum Northwest noted once organization particular past play political population printing problem question reached reason Roman seems sense Service social societies sometimes sort species status structure tend theory things tion trade turn universal various villages whole writing zero-sum