EAN: 9780007542475

THE EVOLUTION OF EVERYTHING - MATT RIDLEY KARTO...

We are taught that the world is a top-down place. Generals win battles  politicians run
countries  scientists discover truths  artists create genres  inventors make breakthroughs 
teachers shape minds  philosophers change minds  priests teach morality  businessmen lead
businesses  environmentalists save the planet. Not just individuals  but institutions too:
Goldman Sachs  the Communist Party  the Catholic Church  Al Qaeda - these are said to shape the
world.  This is more often wrong than right. 'The Evolution of Everything' is about bottom-up
order and its enemy  the top-down twitch  the endless fascination human beings have for design
rather than evolution  for direction rather than emergence. Top downery is the source of most
of our worst problems in the past - why Hitler won an election  why the sub-prime bubble
happened  why Africa lingered in poverty when Asia did not  why the euro is a disaster - and
will be the scourge of this century too.  And although we neglect  defy and ignore them 
bottom-up trends still shape the world. The growth of technology  the sanitation-driven health
revolution  the quadrupling of farm yields so that more land could be released for nature -
these were largely emergent phenomena. So was the internet  the mobile phone revolution and the
rise of Asia.  In this wide-ranging  highly opinionated non-fiction narrative  Ridley draws on
anecdotes from science  economics  history  politics and philosophy and examples drawn from the
scientific literature  from historical narratives and from personal anecdotes.

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