The Evolution of Everything: How Ideas Emerge - Softcover

Ridley, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007583125 ISBN 13: 9780007583126

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2015

Synopsis

We are taught that the world is a top-down place. Acclaimed author, Matt Ridley, shows just how wrong this is in his compelling new book.

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.

About this title

About the Author

Matt Ridley is a bestselling author. His books include Genome, The Rational Optimist and How Innovation Works, among others and collectively they have sold over a million copies, been translated into 31 languages and won several awards.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0007583125
• ISBN 13: 9780007583126
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400