Author Robert Wright explains ‘non-zero-sumness,’ a game-theory term describing how players with linked fortunes tend to cooperate for mutual benefit. This dynamic has guided our biological and cultural evolution, he says — but our unwillingness to understand one another, as in the clash between the Muslim world and the West, will lead to all of us losing the ‘game.’ Once we recognize that life is a non-zero-sum game, in which we all must cooperate to succeed, it will force us to see that moral progress – a move toward empathy – is our only hope.
For all you conspiracy theorists and so-called anarchists out there. =]
April 27, 2007 at 5:17 pm
“Our unwillingness to understand one another, as in the clash between the Muslim world and the West, will lead to all of us losing the ‘game.'”
100% / 2 = 50% and 50%. This is not the same as ‘the Muslim world’ and ‘the West’ being equals that should just get along. The secular West can accommodate Islam, but Islam cannot accommodate the secular West. Recommended:
http://www.westernresistance.com/
http://del.icio.us/box2321/islam?setcount=100
– Trevor
April 30, 2007 at 11:20 pm
It seems that history disagrees with your statement. It seems to me that much of the European Renaissance may not have happened without influence from the Arab world at the time.I don’t find Islam to be anymore or less bloodthirsty than the other Abrahamic religions. I find your willingness to ignore secular Islam all together and instead focus more radical elements to be lackadaisical at best. What is your opinion of the issues going on in Turkey currently, that involve basically their version of George W. Bush being elected?. This doesn’t seem to be an act of ruthlessness to me.