Edification Wednesday, on Dispatch from the Razor's Edge

Non-Zero – The Logic of Human Destiny

Plus: Man, The Moral Animal

"If you ask me why don't I think it's a good idea to bomb the Japanese, I'd say, 'For one thing, because they built my minivan.'"

- Robert Wright, famously

So I don't say that Edification Wednesday has so far been a runaway smash hit. However, we're just going to bull on through and try it again. Following our theme of reasons for optimism, here's the estimable Robert Wright with 19 outstanding minutes on "non-zero-sumness" – a concept that may explain all of our human accomplishments to date; and which gives us very good reasons to hope that things will continue to get better. (*)

Exercises for the Reader:

Okay, on the left here, you've got the book upon which, obviously, the lecture is based. On the right, you've got his earlier book, which is a seriously dandy and awe-inspiring introduction to evolutionary psychology – better even, and more accessible, than Pinker's How the Mind Works. Taken together, these two books probably have about as much explanatory power for the whole human condition as any other two books outside of Borges' library. They are two of my very favourites, and I very heartily recommend them to anyone who may find himself or herself in the human condition.

books evolutionary psychology science video

Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very long walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .