"Mr. Ridley's best and most important work to date...there is
something profoundly democratic and egalitarian--even anti-elitist--in
this bottom-up approach: Everyone can have a role in bringing about
change." --Wall Street Journal
The New York Times bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and
Genome returns with a fascinating argument for evolution that
definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command
and control our world
Human society evolves. Change in technology, language, morality, and
society is incremental, inexorable, gradual, and spontaneous. It follows
a narrative, going from one stage to the next, and it largely happens by
trial and error--a version of natural selection. Much of the human world
is the result of human action but not of human design: it emerges from
the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few.
Drawing on fascinating evidence from science, economics, history,
politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional
assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by
those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop
from the bottom up. The Industrial Revolution, cell phones, the rise of
Asia, and the Internet were never planned; they happened. Languages
emerged and evolved by a form of natural selection, as did common law.
Torture, racism, slavery, and pedophilia--all once widely regarded as
acceptable--are now seen as immoral despite the decline of religion in
recent decades.
In this wide-ranging, erudite book, Ridley brilliantly makes the case
for evolution, rather than design, as the force that has shaped much of
our culture, our technology, our minds, and that even now is shaping our
future.
