Humans in the developed world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who ever inhabited the earth,” Robert Fogel, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, told The New York Times. The good fortune of those alive today, and the promise of more to come, is summed up in the title of one of Fogel’s books: The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100.
