The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
Interview with Michael Muthukrishna about his book A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. Posits that human uniqueness stems from cultural software – socially transmitted, evolving knowledge enabling cooperation and innovation beyond genetic constraints. Outlines four interconnected laws – Energy, Innovation, Cooperation, and Evolution – that explain human progress. Addressing challenges from climate change to inequality requires fostering clean growth and designing incentivised systems. Energy, as the ultimate limiting factor, underpins our ability to build complex societies and expand options, driving a continuous evolutionary process of trial and error in governance and technology.
This is the seventh post about this book. Think of it as staged repetition about what I consider to be the best book of the last few years.