Robert Wright - Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (2000)

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If two people stare at each other for more than a few seconds, it means they are about to either make love or fight. Something similar might be said about human societies. If two nearby societies are in contact for any length of time, they will either trade or fight. The first is non-zero-sum social integration, and the second ultimately brings it.

Robert Wright
Your brain may give birth to any technology, but other brains will decide whether the technology thrives. The number of possible technologies is infinite, and only a few pass this test of affinity with human nature.

Robert Wright
That biological evolution has an arrow — the invention of more structurally and informationally complex forms of life — and that this arrow points toward meaning, isn't, of course, proof of the existence of God. But it's more suggestive of divinity than an alternative world would: a world in which evolution had no direction, or a world with directional evolution but no consciousness. If more scientists appreciated the weirdness of consciousness — understood that a world with sentience, hence without meaning, is exactly the world that a modern behavioral scientist should expect to exist — then reality might inspire more awe than it does.

Robert Wright
In the great non zero sum games of history, if you're part of the problem, then you'll likely be a victim of the solution.

Robert Wright