Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years. Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair. This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.
马特·里德利
Matt Ridley
著名科普作家、牛津大学动物学博士,曾任《经济学人》专栏编辑。著有多部获奖作品,包括《人类基因组》、《灵敏基因》、《红色皇后》等。目前居住在英国。
创新与自由 2012-01-24 对于市场经济和自发秩序,有许多人或者是缺乏理解,或者是缺乏信心。有经济学家就曾说过:自发秩序就是等死。还有人说,市场经济不能靠自己来维持,只能靠政府施加的外力来维持,因为封闭系统如果没有外界的能量输入,必然会变得越来越无序。 但是持这...
评分 评分什么才是推动现代世界的创新永动机的飞轮?为何创新成了惯例?是科技的驱动?是资本的功劳?是货币的应用?是知识产权的授予?是政府发力?——都不是,是交换的威力。思想观念日益频繁的交换带来了现代世界速度日益加快的创新。 正是因为有这么多的贫困、饥饿和疾病,全世界...
评分这个世界似乎永远充满着悲观的论断,大部分看起来都事实确凿、逻辑严明,他们从当前现实生活中的种种细节,推断出未来世界将不可避免地走向衰落。从温室效应、经济崩溃、千年虫甚至末日审判,悲观的推断不仅曾经出现,并且还将继续推陈出新。在革新和转折的时代,这样的论断与...
评分震荡平衡的人类历史,以为这两件事:首先不会太离谱,总会是沿着某一个均线震荡;其次,可以说每时每刻都是挺离谱的,因为不是太过这样了,就是太过那样了。 这个时代的中国是怎么回事呢?是个言论和思想自由的初期,所以人们补偿性的大声说话,而说粗话和说批评的话,显然更...
一本论证世界正在变得越来越好的书。因为和我的想法正好对路,看到作者用各种证据充分论证了就觉得很开心。前面的几章写得比较好一些,最后的两三章感觉有点不够有说服力。有些部分写得有点罗嗦。
评分让不同想法互相交换意见,作者在中将其比喻成“let the idea have sex”, 这样就会产生新的想法。这些新的想法是推动这个社会创新和发展的主要动力。
评分观点有点意思 叙述实在差劲
评分i honestly don't know how i m supposed to feel about this book 我 smell 意识形态说教 but i hate 意识形态 说教 但是 这书 写得 确实 蛮 readable 我好难
评分這本書講的東西非常 counter-intuitive,但假如你認真看完了,會徹底改變你的三觀!
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