Matt Ridley: A rational optimist

special for the monthly Le Scienze, published under license from Codice Edizioni, Turin. 426 Can one be optimistic about the future of humanity?

According to the author, Matt Ridley, one must be optimistic.

Matt Ridley (1958), a graduate in zoology at Oxford, is a British science divulger who, perhaps counter-tendency, argues that humanity continues to evolve incessantly.

With his book he tries to identify what are the reasons behind human evolution and what have been, over time, the reasons that have favored or prevented growth.

At the base of his optimism there seems to be the author's extreme trust in the human capacity to share. Experiences, economic benefits, trade, ideas, knowledge, man has discovered the advantage in exchanging and sharing everything and at the moment the collective intelligence allows to solve problems that were not even conceivable.

Why does this happen?

According to the author, the ideas, at some point in the history of man, began to "meet and mate, to have sex".

It all started, perhaps, when the man began to understand that specialization in work allowed to improve life by giving more time to people to devote themselves to thinking. The specialization has led to a surplus of production, which has allowed the development of trade and commerce. Trade has brought closer and closer to people and more people are in contact and more are brought to exchange what they consider necessary for survival, including ideas.

Of course, on several occasions development has stopped because too few resources have been used for innovation.

Still on the other hand, Ridley argues that self-sufficiency is the opposite path to prosperity, in principle self-sufficiency presupposes the use of a great deal of resources and is in opposition to specialization. Self-sufficiency in practice immobilizes capital and prevents the savings of time necessary for the development of ideas.

The analysis of human behavior leads the author to say that the greater the level of trust the greater the prosperity in a given group, which I fully share and in Italy, in fact, we would need a good deal of confidence to start over thrive.

There is so much more to say, the book touches on many aspects of our world, but I think that what is said is enough to give you an idea.

Good reading and ... be optimistic!

Alessandro Rugolo