Introduction: The Storm Before the Calm

"The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless" -- Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureat

It has often seemed that science was in the business of killing religion, or more specifically a 'higher purpose'. This book takes the position that a 'directionality' can be seen throughout biological evolution, and that this driving force can be viewed as a purpose and source of faith and inspiration.

The Secret of Life

While DNA has often been touted as the 'secret of life', Nonzero gets its name and basic principle from an idea in game theory proposed by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. They made the distinction between 'zero sum games', in which a gain by one player is necessarily at the expense of another player, and 'non-zero sum games', in which two players can take mutually advantageous or disadvantageous approaches (see 'Prisoner's Dilemma'). The pervasive idea of the book is that human history, and more generally biological history, can be seen as increasing non-zero-sumness, particularly zero-sum dynamics driving positive-sum cooperations, which prevail due to their inherent benefit over zero-sum alternatives. Given this process, increased complexity is the destiny of life and civilization.

You call that destiny?

The caveats: the exact state of the world has not been predestined, only the general trends. Also, destined does not mean 100% guaranteed, only highly likely.

The Current Chaos

Even though the direction of cultural evolution has lead to greater prosperity and comfort overall, it has not been smooth, and the current threats from nuclear and biological weapons, global pandemics, terrorists and religious factions are real. However, they are not a sign of the end times, only a result of a transitional period in human history -- the 'storm before the calm'

-- SamPreston - 24 Mar 2007