Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright (English) Paperback Book

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In this new work, the author asserts that 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, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

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.

Author Biography

Robert Wright is the author of Three Scientists and Their Gods and The Moral Animal, which was named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the twelve best books of the year and has been published in nine languages. A recipient of the National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism, Wright has published in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Time, and Slate. He was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and The Sciences and now runs the Web site nonzero.org. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two daughters.

Review

"Exciting and intellectually stimulating?well-written, witty, and quite timely as we consider the challenges of our global, interconnected future."?The Philadelphia Inquirer

Review Quote

"Exciting and intellectually stimulating'well-written, witty, and quite timely as we consider the challenges of our global, interconnected future."?The Philadelphia Inquirer

Excerpt from Book

Introduction: The Calm Before the Storm A great many internal and external portents (political and social upheaval, moral and religious unease) have caused us all to feel, more or less confusedly, that something tremendous is at present taking place in the world. But what is it? -- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin The Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg once ended a book on this note: "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." Far be it from me to argue with a great physicist about how depressing physics is. For all I know, Weinberg''s realm of expertise, the realm of inanimate matter, really does offer no evidence of higher purpose. But when we move into the realm of animate matter -- bacteria, cellular slime molds, and, most notably, human beings -- the situation strikes me as different. The more closely we examine the drift of biological evolution and, especially, the drift of human history, the more there seems to be a point to it all. Because in neither case is "drift" really the right word. Both of these processes have a direction, an arrow. At least, that is the thesis of this book. People who see a direction in human history, or in biological evolution, or both, have often been dismissed as mystics or flakes. In some ways, it''s hard to argue that they deserve better treatment. The philosopher Henri Bergson believed that organic evolution is driven forward by a mysterious "

Details ISBN0679758941 Author Robert Wright Short Title NONZERO Pages 448 Language English ISBN-10 0679758941 ISBN-13 9780679758945 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY 303.4 Year 2001 Residence Washington, DC, US Birth 1957 Subtitle The Logic of Human Destiny DOI 10.1604/9780679758945 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2001-01-09 NZ Release Date 2001-01-09 US Release Date 2001-01-09 UK Release Date 2001-01-09 Publisher Random House USA Inc Publication Date 2001-01-09 Imprint Random House Inc Audience General We've got this

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