About the book
From shipwreck survivors and utopian communes to online groups that include artificially intelligent bots, Nicholas Christakis gathers examples to argue that evolution has given humans an innate blueprint for good societies. Drawing on genetics, network science, neuroscience, evolutionary biology and social science, he contends that natural selection equipped people for love, friendship, cooperation and learning, and that genes shape not only bodies and behavior but also the societies people build, which are surprisingly similar worldwide. He also looks at elephants and dolphins, whose social arrangements resemble human ones, and describes a feedback loop in which societies have in turn shaped human genes over many thousands of years.
Marc Andreessen praised its account of how evolution brings people together, Eric Schmidt endorsed it as a lively case that tribalism can be overcome, and Steven Pinker called Christakis a pioneer in linking individual choices to the shape of a whole society.
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This book has 5 recommendations
Adam Grant (Author)
It’s rare for a physician to become a prominent social scientist. It’s even rarer for that person to write a book that opens your eyes to a fresh way of understanding the world. Blueprint is a contrarian exploration of how good societies may be shaped less by historical forces and more by natural selection.
Eric Schmidt (Ex-CEO/Google)
Tribalism is all around us, but it does not have to be. After all, we are all human. In lively and engaging prose, Christakis shows what is possible, and what we must do.
Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz)
Christakis takes us on a spellbinding tour of how evolution brings people together, setting the stage for our modern world where online networks connect people in new and unprecedented ways. Our genes don't work in isolation; rather they equip our species with the capacity to join together and make great things. This powerful and fascinating book shows the fundamental good that lies within us, that connects us, and that helps us cooperate beyond the survival of the fittest.
Steven Pinker (Author)
Nicholas Christakis is a pioneer in bridging the conceptual chasm between the choices of individual people and the shaping of an entire society. In this timely and fascinating book, he shows how the better angels of our nature, rooted in our evolutionary past, can bring forth an enlightened and compassionate civilization.
Angela Duckworth (Author)
A remarkable achievement! Christakis explains, in the most lucid and accessible way imaginable, how our genetic and cultural heritages are deeply intertwined. The story of human nature is no fairy tale, but it nevertheless reveals our potential, and our proclivity, for good.
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Adam Grant, Eric Schmidt, Marc Andreessen, Steven Pinker, Angela Duckworth
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