wafonso reviewed Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright
Review of 'Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The subtitle of this book, “the logic of human destiny”, is a good description of what it is about. The author tries to show us that human evolution (in fact, that the evolution of any civilization, or even any species) follows a predictable course towards more complexity, along an almost predictable path, without the necessity for a “designer” of any type setting this path. And, mostly, he succeeds.
To do that, he takes us, the readers, in a journey first through the evolution of the human societies, showing us the similarities among cultures evolving separately as far away as China and Central America, and later through the evolution of all the living species on this planet. He shows us the ways in which the steps taken in either situation are very similar, and he argues that these steps can be expected to be repeated in any type of evolution. The …
The subtitle of this book, “the logic of human destiny”, is a good description of what it is about. The author tries to show us that human evolution (in fact, that the evolution of any civilization, or even any species) follows a predictable course towards more complexity, along an almost predictable path, without the necessity for a “designer” of any type setting this path. And, mostly, he succeeds.
To do that, he takes us, the readers, in a journey first through the evolution of the human societies, showing us the similarities among cultures evolving separately as far away as China and Central America, and later through the evolution of all the living species on this planet. He shows us the ways in which the steps taken in either situation are very similar, and he argues that these steps can be expected to be repeated in any type of evolution. The force, or the blind watchmaker, behind this is not an all-knowing god guiding us through the correct path, but rather a more down-to-earth entity: non-zero-sum games (hence the title of the book).
Zero-sum games are games in which one player’s winnings are the other player’s losses (chess is a good example of this type of game). Non-zero-sum games, on the other hand, are games in which the fate of the players is connected in a way that allows both to win (or lose). That is, in a non-zero-sum game, if the players collaborate with each other, each one will win more than any one would if they played independently. For example, if a group of hunters wants to tackle a mammoth, they will do much better by coming up with a strategy and attacking as a group (even if they have to split the meat later) than they would if each one tried to catch the beast on his own (there would be no meat at all to split — or not split).
In this way, non-zero-sum games foster collaboration, which fosters “closeness”, which brings complex structures to our society (and to living beings: multicellular organisms such as ourselves started with just a bunch of cells playing non-zero-sum games with each other), which brings technological advances, which increase the number (and the rewards) of non-zero-sum games you can play, which foster more collaboration, and so on. It’s a very optimistic book, in fact, and a great read. It will keep you thinking for a long time.
