Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
Non-zero-sum relationships can support increasing cooperation and complexity, without eliminating conflict or guaranteeing progress.
Some interactions allow gains or losses shared by several participants.
Some problems are not contests in which one person's gain requires another's loss. Wright follows arrangements where cooperation can improve outcomes, provided institutions help people realise the shared benefit.
These differ from a strictly zero-sum contest.
Biological and cultural history contain expanding cooperative arrangements.
Communication changes the scale at which coordination becomes possible.
Interdependence can make cooperation more advantageous.
A common interest is not enough by itself. Mistrust, unequal power, and conflicting short-term goals remain, so increasing interdependence creates a responsibility to organise cooperation rather than guarantees it.
Institutions help realise benefits not secured by good intentions alone.
Conflict remains possible within and between cooperative systems.
Increasing complexity does not automatically imply moral improvement.
The proposed historical direction remains interpretive and contested.
The conclusion connects future possibilities with managing shared interests more effectively.