Robert Wright has claimed his place amongst the world's podium of
free thinkers by the simple device of tackling familiar, everyday
subjects through the prism of learned analysis and past-to-present
extrapolation. In Nonzero he uses the principle of game theory to
examine world history and the inevitability of cultural evolution.
Beginning with the statement that the oldest form of non-zero sum
interaction (that is one that produces a win-win scenario) lies in
the swapping of data, Wright, re-examines tribal dances, academic
conferences and the internet culture to conclude that they embody
the same principle. Knowing that once you divorce an act from its
action you can then easily label the behavioural pattern it
signifies, Wright finds correlation that supports non-zero sum
behaviour in practically everything from the social structure of
the Shoshone Indians to the bush communism of the Kung. In the
process he examines how the drive for survival favours the
emergence of traits such as reciprocal altruism to the point that
it becomes genetically programmed! Separated into 22 manageable
segments the book tackles a dizzying array of subjects ranging from
Medieval capitalism to the form God will take in the future. The
common thread through all these subjects is Wright's assertion that
we are all out to form win-win scenarios, even in situations with
inherent win-loss outcomes like war. 'Zero-sum games,' he writes,
'are full of non-zero sum components.' In view of the tragic events
at New York's World Trade Centre, a zero-sum game if there ever was
one, the worldwide cooperation against terrorism that followed in
its aftermath is a beneficial 'non-zero sum component.' Wright's
book may not be earth-shaking in its assertion, but it provides a
fresh-take on history and the evolution of society and the moral
imperatives which guide it, and as such it is eye-opening. (Kirkus
UK)
In a book sure to stir argument for years to come, Robert Wright challen+ges the conventional view that biological evolution and human history are aimless. Ingeniously employing game theory – the logic of ‘zero-sum’ and ‘non-zero-sum’ games – Wright isolates the impetus behind life’s basic direction: the impetus that, via biological evolution, created complex, intelligent animals, and then via cultural evolution, pushed the human species towards deeper and vaster social complexity. In this view, the coming of today’s independent global society was ‘in the cards’ – not quite inevitable, but, as Wright puts it, ‘so probable as to inspire wonder’. In a narrative of breathtaking scope and erudition, yet pungent wit, Wright takes on some of the past century’s most prominent thinkers, including Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins. Wright argues that a coolly specific appraisal of humanity’s three-billion-year past can give new spiritual meaning to the present and even offer political guidance for the future. This book will change the way people think about the human prospect.
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