In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright...
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Apr 15, 2010
Richard
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This is a pretty weak-hearted review.
When I picked up this book I was looking specifically for something and didn't find it here. And I'd already figured out most of what this book is about, so overall I was disappointed. It might deserve more stars, but I can't get away from that sense of disappointment.
What was I obsessing over?
Many years ago I stumbled on Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation and saw in it some astonishing insights. It is strictly a More...
When I picked up this book I was looking specifically for something and didn't find it here. And I'd already figured out most of what this book is about, so overall I was disappointed. It might deserve more stars, but I can't get away from that sense of disappointment.
What was I obsessing over?
Many years ago I stumbled on Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation and saw in it some astonishing insights. It is strictly a More...
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Apr 12, 2011
Chris
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Nonzero presents the type of reading eventuality that drives me to despair: a book eagerly imbibed some six or seven years ago—and recommended afterwards to a handful of friends—of which today, dredge the polluted and choppy canals of my memory though I might, produces but a hazy, shimmery image from which can be recollected naught other than an attractive blue, yellow and white cover, the authorial handle (one frequently confused with Richard of the shared surname), and a minute, fleshless skel
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May 07, 2009
Ed
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This is another of those rare non-fiction "I couldn't put it down" books.
Using Game Theory, Wright develops a theory of Cultural Evolution that gives rise to optimism, while not ignoring those things that could go wrong. However, if history is any guide, the increasing complexity of human culture has always moved Homo Sapiens closer and closer to a culture of mutual collaboration and reciprocal altruism to the point that we might look forward to a global culture that wou More...
Using Game Theory, Wright develops a theory of Cultural Evolution that gives rise to optimism, while not ignoring those things that could go wrong. However, if history is any guide, the increasing complexity of human culture has always moved Homo Sapiens closer and closer to a culture of mutual collaboration and reciprocal altruism to the point that we might look forward to a global culture that wou More...
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Jan 17, 2011
Jake
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There's a subtle difference between popular science books written by scientists, and popular science books written by science journalists. Compare Robert Wright's "Nonzero" to Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Both are deep-thinking overviews of human history, largely organized along Darwinian lines- but Diamond's book is brain-shaking in a way that Wright's isn't. One hypothesis might be that scientists are just closer to the material, so their thinking is deeper
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Jul 19, 2008
Kevin
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The basic thesis is sound: communities that engage in non-zero sum exchanges will out compete communities that do not. As a result, the tendency over time will be towards increasingly complex societies that are increasingly able to benefit their members.
The weakness I see is that it pre-supposes an open system where the failure of one society does not impact the success (or survival) of other societies. Up until recently, this has been the case, but with increasing proliferation o More...
The weakness I see is that it pre-supposes an open system where the failure of one society does not impact the success (or survival) of other societies. Up until recently, this has been the case, but with increasing proliferation o More...
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Aug 06, 2011
Wright writes a book that turns out to be about what one would expect from a non-academic writing on a huge metaphysical question with the soaring ambition of an articulate journalist. Wright's thesis is self-consciously modest in scope; he argues for the directionality of biological and cultural evolution towards greater complexity and non-zero-sum character. Wright however, seems undecided on how far he wants to take this argument. On the one hand he constantly reminds the reader that he does
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Dec 05, 2008
Matt
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Wright has an extremely down-to-earth agility with words in their service to synthetic thought and theories. He's extremely well-read, open-minded, and original with his approach to how the future may look. There is a 20 minute talk by him on the TED Talks website which is a very loose summary of this book, but if you enjoy it you will love the book and his style of presentation. He's kind of silly, kind of brilliant, disarmingly cautious, and, I hope, right with his intuitions. This book is a s
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Sep 02, 2011
Doug
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It's really annoying the way that he keeps using anthromorphizes non-zero-summness as the driving force behind complexity, I know that the author addresses it, but the term is unwieldy and reading over and over gets bothersome. Other than that, I didn't like the book, I think he's putting the cart before the horse when he theorizes that cooperation and non-zero-sum games are the driving force behind life's tendency towards greater complexity. I think it definitely is a factor, but I feel that
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Feb 13, 2011
Roy
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This book exemplifies the unexacting/facile epistemological underpinning of social sciences as compared to the natural/hard sciences. Almost every hypothesis in this book is a "just so" story backed by non-falsifiable/cherry-picked historical data, and masked (ever so slightly) in the technicality of game theory. I do understand that it is hard to run an empirical experiment on history, but neither should we rely on it for high probability future outcome. The author does have some i
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Oct 22, 2010
ryn
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i'm sympathetic to the line Wright draws from the origins of DNA, through the course of biological evolution from single-celled organisms to hominids, continuing seamlessly through the birth of culture and its own subsequent evolution through tribe and chiefdom and city-state and nation. that line, called non-zero-sumness, is clearly articulated, and his assessment of its tenacity and inventiveness is useful in considering evolution in a similar (but more fruitful) way as the anthropic principl
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Jun 13, 2011
Ben
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I'd previously read the Moral Animal by Robert Wright, which explored evolutionary psychology and briefly introduced the reader to the concept of non-zero sum games; situations where the benefits of cooperation outweigh the potential of individual action. This book, Non-zero, shows how non-zero interactions can explain a directionality to both biological and 'cultural evolution'*.
The book is divided into 3 parts. Firstly Wright explores his thesis that the evolution of cultures is dire More...
The book is divided into 3 parts. Firstly Wright explores his thesis that the evolution of cultures is dire More...
Apr 06, 2011
Cassandra
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Mar 28, 2010
Phil
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I heard about this book in an interview with Bill Clinton. Clinton loves it, and Clinton is right. This book, which could be called "Memes, Genes, and Game Theory" as a reference to that other great history of the whole of humanity by Jared Diamond, is three interesting parts. First, there is a game theory heavy discussion of why people cooperate ("Nonzero" is short for "Nonzero sumness" which is a game theory term that Wright does an excellent job explaining to
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Jun 12, 2011
Douglas
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A student recommended this to me which made me stay with it longer than I would have otherwise. This seems to be one of those books that creates a nomenclature for what seems to be obvious. Yes, it is better when societies work to mutual benefit rather than getting theirs in a zero sum enviornment. And you can only read "...but I'll get to that later in the book" so many times before you decide to skip to the good stuff. Which I did and it wasn't that good. But it wasn't all bad. Th
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Jul 19, 2010
Matt
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I came across this book in a reference to former President Clinton. Apparently towards the end of his time in office this book came to his attention and upon reading it he began urging those around him to read the book. Robert Wright asserts that all of human history can be understood in terms of game theory. He builds on two very high level concepts from game theory: zero sum and non-zero sum games. His primary assertion is that throughout history, human interaction has by nature become mor
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Oct 19, 2009
Nicholas
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Mar 08, 2010
Mark
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A....review in progress of a reading in progress...please ignore for a while....
Wright uses game theory as a way of explaining the trajectory of human history. Wright argues that there is a tendency towards cooperation, towards complex models of working together, and it neither "conspiracy or accident", that is, just because there wasn't a plan deoesn't mean it is random, either.
Wright does a good job of negotiating the land mines involved in talking More...
Wright uses game theory as a way of explaining the trajectory of human history. Wright argues that there is a tendency towards cooperation, towards complex models of working together, and it neither "conspiracy or accident", that is, just because there wasn't a plan deoesn't mean it is random, either.
Wright does a good job of negotiating the land mines involved in talking More...
Sep 18, 2009
Maha
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Re-read this as part of my August project to go back through old favorites and also as a refresher before tackling Wright's new book. But, having re-read Nonzero, I'm now not sure I want to tackle the new book (Evolution of God) at all (I bought it and skimmed the opening bits).
Wright's basic thesis, which he's been hammering over several books and many articles for years, is a combination of evolutionary psychology and the economics of game theory. Evolution leads us to do whatever More...
Wright's basic thesis, which he's been hammering over several books and many articles for years, is a combination of evolutionary psychology and the economics of game theory. Evolution leads us to do whatever More...
Jan 20, 2008
Dan
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Ok, first of all you should be extremely distrustful of anyone who thinks you can sum up all of human history (and perhaps all of biological history) in a nice simply history. Luckily, the author admits the fallacy and misplaced grandiosity of trying to think this way. But he does make a good case for the awesome power that's been unleashed since single-celled creatures first begun operating in cooperative ventures. Anthropologists talk about the value of culture to humans (the transmis More...
Nov 13, 2007
Jjohnson
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In game theory-speak, at its most basic level, Wright's asserts that human interactions are positive-sum: there are gains from cooperation. In Wright's view, complexity=progess. Wright sees inventions such as agriculture as inevitable--not as a lucky accidents. To give you a sense of Wright's thought on this, consider Mars and an Ameoba, Wright would argue that inevitably man or something very like man would develop.
Societies that are more powerful--have better technologies, mor More...
Societies that are more powerful--have better technologies, mor More...
Apr 02, 2010
Andre
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Robert Wright walks the reader through a summary of both cultural and biological evolution in Nonzero. The scope of the book is impressive and Wright is adept at not diving too deeply into details. Wright makes an argument that the evolution of life, cultural and biological, is always growing in complexity and in turn shedding zero-sum relationships in favor of nonzero-sum relationships. That is, we are moving away from strict competition towards integrated cooperation. Although I take excep
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Jun 20, 2011
Rob
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I probably did Wright a huge disservice by reading his books essentially backwards. I hit NonZero and was like, yeah yeah yeah, read all this before. Anyway, I love the ideas he flushes out with: NonZero, Moral Animal, Evolution of God, etc. For me a lot of it rings very very true. I love how much of Wright's thinking is similar to Philo of Alexandria...
"He [God] has made none of these particular things complete in itself, so that it should have no need at all of other thin More...
"He [God] has made none of these particular things complete in itself, so that it should have no need at all of other thin More...
Feb 06, 2009
Mike
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Finally finished this one - I read it pretty slowly in between other books, which seemed like a good way to do it.
A pretty good book to read after reading The Selfish Gene, as both basically deal with game theory models.
The first part (human history) is great, with a lot of salient points. The second part (organic history) is weaker, and Dawkins says a lot of this better.
The third part of the book, admittedly speculative, didn't do much for me. I thought it w More...
A pretty good book to read after reading The Selfish Gene, as both basically deal with game theory models.
The first part (human history) is great, with a lot of salient points. The second part (organic history) is weaker, and Dawkins says a lot of this better.
The third part of the book, admittedly speculative, didn't do much for me. I thought it w More...
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Oct 16, 2011
Willa
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A brilliant take on evolution, from a strongly capitalist/American point of view, but forming a very interesting part of the whole evolutionary puzzle. You can agree or disagree with Wright's overall view of life, but that doesn't really matter as the book is so refreshing, logical, and full of interesting views that make you think twice about your own assumptions of how we got where we are, and where we might be headed.
Aug 22, 2011
Pat
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After reading 'Evolution of God' and seeing Robert Wright on Bill Moyers I read 'Nonzero.'
I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to think about where the human race may go in the future and how we are motivated to go in a positive or negative direction. Wright is positive and at the last chapters I kept recalling the new age novel series 'The Celestine Prophecy' by James Redfield. Wright provokes me to think about where humanity is heading next with complexity as the overarching th More...
I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to think about where the human race may go in the future and how we are motivated to go in a positive or negative direction. Wright is positive and at the last chapters I kept recalling the new age novel series 'The Celestine Prophecy' by James Redfield. Wright provokes me to think about where humanity is heading next with complexity as the overarching th More...
Sep 12, 2008
David
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This is a little-appreciate but very interesting book. Wright argues that one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the twentieth century was the work by John von Neumann and John Nash that basic game-theory when applied to economics (and other aspects of society) means that there are ever-greater advantages to working on cooperation and collaboration and trade with others -- this is essentially a fundamental law of nature. Wright then proceed to discuss at length the many implicat
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Jul 19, 2010
James
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The first part of this book very good analysis of the evolution of societies from less complex to more complex organizations. But by the end of the book the author gets a little preach-y in his assertions about "inevitabilities" of human evolution.
Sep 27, 2009
Mel
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A totally different way of thinking about the world and the linkage of various events. It's a persuasive and entertaining read. Wright's conceptions have their spirited adversaries, but his thinking process is unique and thought-provoking.
Dec 17, 2009
Elliot
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While surveying the increasingly strident debate over terrorism and the war in Iraq, I often think back to this book. Written pre-9/11, it makes a convincing case for our crisis (then hypothetical, now real) being more a function of the inevitable interconnection that evolution leads to than the work of any individual or ideology. I like the way Wright relates biological structures to the structure of global culture, and I'd like to think that taking the really long view towards human existence
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Aug 04, 2011
Andy
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Looking at human history and for that matter the whole history of life on earth through the lenses of game theory can change your view of life (http://www.nonzero.org).
