Nonzero: the logic of human destiny | Notes
By: Abishek Babu
Tags: Books, Book Review, Review, Information, Reading

1/ Here are my notes from @robertwrighter‘s book — Nonzero: the logic of human destiny. I enjoyed the book very much.

The basic premise of the book is that history has a direction which favors co-operation and non-zero sum games, and that causes an increase in complexity.

2/ Starting from the first replicating molecule which co-operated with an outer layer to form first proto-cell, evolutionary and cultural history is full of examples where two entities come together to survive and progress a lot more than they would have done individually.

3/ This co-operative entity fares much better than two individual entities because of specialization. If two entities are in the same boat — that they win together or lose together — then trust is implicit.

4/ In a non-zero sum game, trust causes entities to focus on what they do best. For example, eukaryotic cells — the ones animals and plants have — emerged when two proto-cells merged, and one took the role of energy generator (mitochondria), the other specialized in protection.

5/ Some scientists believe that even nucleus in a cell is a result of an early cell merging with another cell. So M&A is not a recent phenomenon, entities have been merging because of common interests ever since life started.

6/ Even a single cell is an emergent entity because different genes/DNA “decided” that co-operating and specializing via a single genome is a much better survival mechanism as compared to individual genes/DNA trying to replicate in the wild.

7/ By making an organism, the genes in the genome, seal their common fate. Either they survive together or they die together. This is truly a non-zero sum game.

8/ However, within the broader non-zero sum game, there are opportunities for playing zero-sum games. Like, even though we’re a family and there’s a single ice-cream left in the fridge, you’d want to have it.

9/ After emergence of eukaryotic cells, the big leap was multiple eukaryotic cells coming together to form a multi-cellular organism.

10/ An organism is a pact that billions of cells share that they either survive together or die together. This “trust” enables them to specialize and co-operate together for better survival. Some become specialists at taking in oxygen, and others at writing poetry.

11/ Now onto cultural evolution. What I thought was perhaps the most clever idea in the book: ideas that support co-operation and specialization survive and get adopted because they enable win-win deals for idea holders. (Non-zero sum games)

12/ Technologies — like hammer and spear — enable a group of humans to co-operate and do things they individually couldn’t have done: like taking on a mammoth, or going to the moon.

13/ And there’s a nice feedback loop in technology< →co-operation cycle. The more people co-operate, the more they’re able to specialize, which leads to more sophisticated technology.

14/ Out of all technologies, perhaps information technologies are most conducive to enabling more non-zero sum games. As writing skill spread, more and more people entered into simple written contracts that helped people co-operate and specialize.

15/ Perhaps the biggest information technology was money and the corresponding meme of capitalism that helped people express their desires clearly and others to fulfill those desires.

16/ We have a thousand different types of shoes because shoe-makers today do not have to worry about baking their own bread. This “trust” in the larger entity of commerce helps everyoneprogress.

17/ This loop of technology< →co-operation accelerates specialization and causes complexity to grow even in face of the second law of thermodynamics, which states universe tends to move towards disorder.

18/ One good way to think why non-zero sum games are inevitable throughout history is to see thatentities that co-operate overpower entities that don’t. In this way, war or threat of war actually causes people to come together as a nation-state.

19/ This threat of zero-sum or even negative-sum game (of say “nuclear war” or “climate change”) is the catalyst for greater levels of co-operation. The book discusses EU and UN as early and emerging examples of a possible future “world government“ (whatever shape it may take)

20/ So even though history is full of accidents and you can’t precisely tell time and location of major shifts/innovations, you can tell that (social, information, energy and material) technologies that enable entities to co-operate are inevitable.

21/ Eye was “discovered” by evolution multiple times, and so was flight. Similarly, the book argues, if humans vanish, perhaps our close cousins (primates) will have an opportunity to evolve towards a greater level of co-operation and reinventing writing, capitalism and culture.

22/ That reminded me of the movie “Planet of the apes”! Of course, tribalism is rampant today and the age of Trump and Brexit will be a good test for book’s ideas. My sense is that these are hiccups and counter-trends such as crypto, Internet and UBI will enable cohesion.

23/ To reiterate: the trajectory of history pushes co-operation and complexity while the second law pushes dissolution and disorder. Is it the old yin-yang meme at play?