The Gambling Animal
Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak - and How We Risk It All
Don Ross author Glenn Harrison author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Profile Books Ltd
Publishing:30th Jan '25
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 30th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Humanity's unique relationship with risk has driven us to defy the evolutionary odds - but as the stakes keep mounting, how long before our luck runs out?
Evolution is a series of bets, and no animal gambles the way humans do. This has led us to unprecedented ecological dominance, via the steepest odds and unlikeliest of outcomes, but our winning streak cuts both ways: the secret to our success may yet be our downfall. The Gambling Animal offers a revelatory retelling of the human story. Drawing on their unique research into the management of risk by humans and other animals - including our most impressive rivals, elephants - Glenn Harrison and Don Ross reveal the hidden logic of our rise. Even before the dawn of civilisation, we bet the Earth on our ability to keep doubling down. But with an ecological crisis on the horizon, how long will our winning streak continue?
This is a masterful integration of scientific insights on the human path to ecological domination [and] many-faceted scholarly work made accessible to the intelligent non-specialist ... it is behavioral economics at its best -- George Ainslie, behavioural economist and author of Breakdown of Will
This valuable and highly enjoyable book offers a fresh perspective: human evolution as a story of collective risk management, seasoned with a bit of luck. The Gambling Animal takes us on a tour through the gambles of life, from the survival struggles of early hominids to the allure of video poker to our high-stakes wager on climate change. If you are curious about humanity's evolutionary gamble, this book is for you -- Gerd Gigerenzer, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development
A fascinating exploration of the way people who are individually risk-averse take big risks collectively, including now gambling with the existence of humanity. The authors weave together insights from economics and evolutionary science to paint a persuasive picture of how humans' social brains - developed in response to environmental uncertainty - have given us a uniquely powerful but dangerously flawed type of intelligence -- Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and author of Cogs & Monsters
A sweeping and page-turning story of how humans - and other animals - manage the myriad risks that continually face us. The authors make a compelling case that the management of risk shapes whether we flourish (or perish) both as individuals, and as a species. -- Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School and author of The Mind is Flat
Praise for Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalised (with James Ladyman) -- :
A book can be important, although its main claims seem to the reader to be as controversial at the end of the book as they were at the beginning ... So it is with Every Thing Must Go ... An enticing work -- Jeremy Butterfield * TLS *
Ross's broadside against traditional analytic metaphysics embodies the most admirable characteristics of a good slap across the face: it is forceful, frank, and delivered in response to sufficient provocation -- P. Kyle Stanford, author of Exceeding Our Grasp
ISBN: 9781788163620
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
416 pages
Main