Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (Vintage)
In 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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Community Reviews
PART I A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND
1. The Ladder of Cultural Evolution
6/10
Some intelligent quotes, but it's largely just a loose and nonspecific intro that doesn't really make much sense as the full idea is not clear at all.
2. The Way We Were
5,5/10
Still very flimsy. It's all holistic stuff about being one whole as humans and working together. Unfortunately he still has not really explained much at all. It's a chapter that's kinda about nothing much.
3. Add Technology and Bake for Five Millennia
4/10
Honestly very boring ideological chit-chat that often plays tight and loose with evidence and research. It's the worst chapter I've read by him and a letdown overall because The Moral Animal is such an amazing book with some great research presented in it. I'm not sure why he wrote this or why he suddenly wants to avoid certain findings to support his new holistic theory about groups.
4. The Invisible Brain
6/10
Intro still. Huge groups advance progress? Sure, but he's overlooking everything else here. Potential, geniuses, overall tribe potential. In reality it's not only primitive power dynamics that are at play in group and state settings. It's extremely simplistic to only focus on this while not just ignoring, but even dismissing any other theory. Not really the ideal way to present your theory.
5. War: What Is It Good For?
6/10
Ehhh… not really getting the point.
6. The Inevitability of Agriculture
5/10
Still not convincing.
7. The Age of Chiefdoms
5,5/10
Basic chiefdom info you can read in regular anthropology books. Nothing new. But may be interesting to laymen.
8. The Second Information Revolution
5/10
How much interesting stuff can you say about writing's influence on ancient societies overall? Not much.
9. Civilization and So On
5/10
Still don't get it.
10. Our Friends the Barbarians
5/10
Just a bunch of history stories. Not really sure what the point is yet.
11. Dark Ages
5/10
Okay, I've read/listened to quite a few more chapters, but this book is a mess that overlooks most modern studies on groups and instead tries to focus on a holistic point of view completely ignoring actual evidence.
It's a historical book describing small societies and events in history. Basically trying to describe everything that happened. But it's not for me. I've watched history documentaries about all of history and they were fun. But I hate books like this that are unfocused and not fully scientific. It's impossible to just jump into a setting one minute and then jump out of it the next minute without any visual guides. Shame, it's fine enough history. Just not in a way where I can enjoy it.
Frankly, unless you are looking at a very basic overview of human tribe living this is not the book for you. I could probably have enjoyed it 20 years ago, maybe. But now it feels banal and repetitive, telling me stuff I've seen in much better YouTube documentaries. Go search YouTube for this stuff instead unless you love reading and don't need to see it visually.
When I think about it I overall feel this way: if the book had followed the modern heritability, personality and intelligence research more closely I would have found it to be fine enough as an overview of group settings. Not amazing, but a good overview. Now it feels like it's not a proper overview as it's way too holistic and based on guesswork. And then it has the issue of being unfocused too. You can't fail twice in huge ways and get away with it. You can easily fail a single time and still write a good book. So fixing one or the other would work for me. As of now it feels like it's not really getting at the truth, but rather trying frantically to avoid it.
12. The Inscrutable Orient
0/10
13. Modern Times
0/10
14. And Here We Are
0/10
15. New World Order
0/10
16. Degrees of Freedom
0/10
PART II A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIC LIFE
17. The Cosmic Context
0/10
18. The Rise of Biological Non-zero-sumness
0/10
19. Why Life Is So Complex
0/10
20. The Last Adaptation
0/10
PART III FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
21. Non-crazy Questions
0/10
22. You Call This a God?
0/10
1. The Ladder of Cultural Evolution
6/10
Some intelligent quotes, but it's largely just a loose and nonspecific intro that doesn't really make much sense as the full idea is not clear at all.
2. The Way We Were
5,5/10
Still very flimsy. It's all holistic stuff about being one whole as humans and working together. Unfortunately he still has not really explained much at all. It's a chapter that's kinda about nothing much.
3. Add Technology and Bake for Five Millennia
4/10
Honestly very boring ideological chit-chat that often plays tight and loose with evidence and research. It's the worst chapter I've read by him and a letdown overall because The Moral Animal is such an amazing book with some great research presented in it. I'm not sure why he wrote this or why he suddenly wants to avoid certain findings to support his new holistic theory about groups.
4. The Invisible Brain
6/10
Intro still. Huge groups advance progress? Sure, but he's overlooking everything else here. Potential, geniuses, overall tribe potential. In reality it's not only primitive power dynamics that are at play in group and state settings. It's extremely simplistic to only focus on this while not just ignoring, but even dismissing any other theory. Not really the ideal way to present your theory.
5. War: What Is It Good For?
6/10
Ehhh… not really getting the point.
6. The Inevitability of Agriculture
5/10
Still not convincing.
7. The Age of Chiefdoms
5,5/10
Basic chiefdom info you can read in regular anthropology books. Nothing new. But may be interesting to laymen.
8. The Second Information Revolution
5/10
How much interesting stuff can you say about writing's influence on ancient societies overall? Not much.
9. Civilization and So On
5/10
Still don't get it.
10. Our Friends the Barbarians
5/10
Just a bunch of history stories. Not really sure what the point is yet.
11. Dark Ages
5/10
Okay, I've read/listened to quite a few more chapters, but this book is a mess that overlooks most modern studies on groups and instead tries to focus on a holistic point of view completely ignoring actual evidence.
It's a historical book describing small societies and events in history. Basically trying to describe everything that happened. But it's not for me. I've watched history documentaries about all of history and they were fun. But I hate books like this that are unfocused and not fully scientific. It's impossible to just jump into a setting one minute and then jump out of it the next minute without any visual guides. Shame, it's fine enough history. Just not in a way where I can enjoy it.
Frankly, unless you are looking at a very basic overview of human tribe living this is not the book for you. I could probably have enjoyed it 20 years ago, maybe. But now it feels banal and repetitive, telling me stuff I've seen in much better YouTube documentaries. Go search YouTube for this stuff instead unless you love reading and don't need to see it visually.
When I think about it I overall feel this way: if the book had followed the modern heritability, personality and intelligence research more closely I would have found it to be fine enough as an overview of group settings. Not amazing, but a good overview. Now it feels like it's not a proper overview as it's way too holistic and based on guesswork. And then it has the issue of being unfocused too. You can't fail twice in huge ways and get away with it. You can easily fail a single time and still write a good book. So fixing one or the other would work for me. As of now it feels like it's not really getting at the truth, but rather trying frantically to avoid it.
12. The Inscrutable Orient
0/10
13. Modern Times
0/10
14. And Here We Are
0/10
15. New World Order
0/10
16. Degrees of Freedom
0/10
PART II A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORGANIC LIFE
17. The Cosmic Context
0/10
18. The Rise of Biological Non-zero-sumness
0/10
19. Why Life Is So Complex
0/10
20. The Last Adaptation
0/10
PART III FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
21. Non-crazy Questions
0/10
22. You Call This a God?
0/10
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