Título: Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
Autor: Robert Wright
Sinopse: At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded — and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless. Ingeniously employing game theory — the logic of "zero-sum" and "non-zero-sum" games — Wright isolates the impetus behind life's basic direction: the impetus that, via biological evolution, created complex, intelligent animals and then, via cultural evolution, pushed the human species toward deeper and vaster social complexity. In this view, the coming of today's interdependent global society was "in the cards" — not quite inevitable, perhaps, but, as Wright puts it, "so probable as to inspire wonder." So probable, indeed, as to invite speculation about higher purpose, especially in light of "the phase of history that seems to lie immediately ahead: a social, political, and even moral culmination of sorts." In a work of vast erudition and pungent wit, Wright takes on some of the past century's most prominent thinkers, including Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins. He finds evidence for his position in unexpected corners, from native American hunter-gatherer societies and Polynesian chiefdoms to medieval Islamic commerce and precocious Chinese technology; from conflicts of interest among a cell's genes to discord at the World Trade Organization. Wright argues that a coolly scientific appraisal of humanity's three-billion-year past can give new spiritual meaning to the present and even offer political guidance for the future. Nonzero will change the way people think about the human prospect.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny”, de Robert Wright, publicado pela editora Pantheon, em 2000 e com 435 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: Pantheon
Páginas: 435
Ano: 2000
Edição:
Linguagem: inglês
ISBN: 0679442529
ISBN13: 9780679442523
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Pantheon oferecem uma experiência de leitura marcada por narrativas densas e multifacetadas, que transitam entre o íntimo e o social. As sinopses sugerem uma predileção por histórias que exploram conflitos humanos profundos, como a busca por redenção de personagens marginalizados, investigações filosóficas e morais, além de reflexões sobre tecnologia e identidade. O tom varia do melancólico ao mordaz, com ritmo que ora se detém em detalhes minuciosos, ora se acelera em tramas complexas e entrelaçadas. A diversidade do catálogo inclui tanto obras gráficas com desenhos detalhados quanto ensaios e memórias que dialogam com temas contemporâneos e históricos.
