NONZERO - Book

Games like Chess have a simple proposition; I win, you lose; you win, I lose. Both cannot win at the same time. Games like these are called Zero Sum Games. The opposite of this is Non-zero-Sum where the sum of gains and losses by the players are always more or less than what they began with.

This concept was developed in Game Theory where players choose different action to maximize their returns. It turns out that although developed as a tool at the height of cold war, it has ended up being a useful in day to day affairs involving negotiations between two parties.

Trivial as these concepts seem at first, it turns out the life itself is a large scale Non-Zero-Sum Game operating at many levels!! Nature has been doing its own research on Game Theory for billions of years!! Genes subsume their individuality teaming with other genes to form viruses, bacteria and other single celled creatures. Cells get together and form multi-cellular organisms with continuous evolution in complexity. At each point the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The implication here is that life presents us with scenarios that may seem adversarial at first glance only to reveal opportunities for cooperation.

The book I want to talk about is NONZERO is by Robert Wright

This book takes a slight slant in it that; it claims that cultural development is predictably always in forward. Although politically incorrect to label earlier cultures as progressing from "Savagery", "barbarians", "low barbarians" to finally "civilized", it was felt by looking back at over the past several millennium that historical forces inevitably forced a cultural evolution along those lines.

This book describes several cultures spread over several millennium with examples spanning five continents. In each case the author makes a convincing case for direction of the arrow of culture as moving forward; towards greater social complexity and interdependence. He shows by clear examples how repeatedly in history there has been major technology shifts that convinces that generation that they are living in a period of great change!! Each technological leap increases the possibility of Nonzero-sumness leading to even greater interdependence.

Read also The Evolution of Cooperation by Axelrod for more on this topic.