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The Evolution of Everything
- How New Ideas Emerge
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's summary
The New York Times best-selling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating, brilliant argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world.
The Evolution of Everything is about bottom-up order and its enemy, the top-down twitch - the endless fascination human beings have with design rather than evolution, with direction rather than emergence. Drawing on anecdotes from science, economics, history, politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley's wide-ranging, highly opinionated opus demolishes conventional assumptions that major scientific and social imperatives are dictated by those on high, whether in government, business, academia, or morality. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the bottom up. Patterns emerge, trends evolve. Just as skeins of geese form Vs in the sky without meaning to and termites build mud cathedrals without architects, so brains take shape without brain makers, learning can happen without teaching, and morality changes without a plan.
Although we neglect, defy, and ignore them, bottom-up trends shape the world. The growth of technology, the sanitation-driven health revolution, the quadrupling of farm yields so that more land can be released for nature - these were largely emergent phenomena, as were the Internet, the mobile phone revolution, and the rise of Asia. Ridley demolishes the arguments for design and effectively makes the case for evolution in the universe, morality, genes, the economy, culture, technology, the mind, personality, population, education, history, government, God, money, and the future.
As compelling as it is controversial, authoritative as it is ambitious, Ridley's stunning perspective will revolutionize the way we think about our world and how it works.
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Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. He argues that our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics, medicine, and education as we know them. It has fired our near-pathological pursuit of technological Utopias even as we push ourselves and our planet to the brink of collapse.
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I love this author!
- By Tamara Smith on 12-03-17
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The Great Degeneration
- How Institutions Decay and Economies Die
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Paul Slack
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author and world-renowned historian Niall Ferguson has won widespread acclaim for thought-provoking works such as Civilization and High Financier. The Great Degeneration tackles nothing less than the decline of Western civilization. Ferguson posits that slowing growth, outrageous debt, and antisocial behavior are contributing to the erosion of the West’s once rock-solid foundations. Ferguson excavates the causes and shows how heroic leadership and radical reform are needed to right the course.
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Superb as always!
- By Ivanhoe on 08-28-17
By: Niall Ferguson
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Capitalism
- The Unknown Ideal
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This was the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constituted a major philosophic revolution. In this series of essays, she presented her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.
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Ashame this is not taught in our
- By Karen on 08-18-07
By: Ayn Rand
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Future Shock
- By: Alvin Toffler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Future Shock is about the present. Future Shock is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations - even our patterns of friendship and love. Future Shock vividly describes the emerging global civilization: tomorrow's family life, the rise of new businesses, subcultures, lifestyles, and human relationships - all of them temporary. It illuminates the world of tomorrow by exploding countless cliches about today.
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So Accurate
- By Peter Gracia on 03-31-19
By: Alvin Toffler
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Breaking the Spell
- Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the thousands of books that have been written about religion, few until this one have attempted to examine it scientifically: to ask why - and how - it has shaped so many lives so strongly. Is religion a product of blind evolutionary instinct or rational choice? Is it truly the best way to live a moral life? Ranging through biology, history, and psychology, Daniel C. Dennett charts religion’s evolution from “wild” folk belief to “domesticated” dogma.
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Great Reader Actually Enhances A Great Book!
- By Don Caliente on 07-14-14
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- By: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.
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I will never see school the same
- By Nicole on 05-21-15
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How Much is Enough?
- Money and the Good Life
- By: Edward Skidelsky
- Narrated by: Clay Teunis
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. This book tackles such questions head-on.The authors begin with the great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930 Keynes predicted that, within a century, per capita income would steadily rise, people’s basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week.
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Not what I expected at all!
- By Chi on 05-22-23
By: Edward Skidelsky
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Millennium
- From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed over a Thousand Years
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In Millennium, best-selling historian Ian Mortimer takes the listener on a whirlwind tour of the last 10 centuries of Western history. It is a journey into a past vividly brought to life and bursting with ideas, that pits one century against another in his quest to measure which century saw the greatest change. We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burned to the ground by invaders - and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer - to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilizations came into conflict.
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Bad ending - literally
- By John Gordon on 12-14-16
By: Ian Mortimer
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Progress
- Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
- By: Johan Norberg
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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It's on the television, in the papers, and in our minds. Every day we're bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is - financial collapse, unemployment, growing poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. But the rarely acknowledged reality is that our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.
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Global Uptrends That May Surprise You
- By Alexandra Hopkins on 09-22-17
By: Johan Norberg
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How Soon Is Now
- From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation
- By: Daniel Pinchbeck
- Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The world needs to change. We have unleashed an ecological mega-crisis which is threatening the future of life on Earth. The actions we take over the next decade are critical. They will determine the destiny of our descendants and the fate of our world. How Soon Is Now presents a compelling manifesto for personal and planetary change. It proposes a revolutionary new narrative for a unified social movement. Through global cooperation, we can face this collective threat ecologically, socially, politically and spiritually.
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Relevant!!!!
- By Anonymous User on 12-11-23
By: Daniel Pinchbeck
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What listeners say about The Evolution of Everything
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Winfield
- 12-16-15
Brilliant!
Would you listen to The Evolution of Everything again? Why?
Yes, I am in the process of listening and reading it a second time now. At the age of 79, I sometimes fall asleep while listening so I miss some parts. Not that Ridley's book is boring, but that I might need a nap even in the middle of a terrorist attack -- or something.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
Having taught evolutionary ecology at the graduate level, Ridley's expansion of the idea of evolution to "everything" -- including morality, religion, goverment, etc. is a fascinating, testable hypothesis worthy of further study. It will drive incipient and active tyrants into a frenzy.
Have you listened to any of Steven Crossley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No. The "English" accent was sometimes difficult to hear, but otherwise well-done.
If you could give The Evolution of Everything a new subtitle, what would it be?
Why "Creationism" is Irrational
Any additional comments?
Many thanks for a job well-done.
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24 people found this helpful
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- danwatts@aol.com
- 02-29-16
A "must read" on how the world really works.
Some may find this material a bit long and dry because the it requires you to really listen and think deeply to get the most out it. Some people don't want to have to think, but if you do make the effort, you will find yourself rewarded and become very informed and enlightened for your effort.
The range if topics covered is broad so as soon as I finish this review, I will be listening to it a second time to be sure I didn't miss any important points. Though not required, you may find it useful to get another book by this author "The Rational Optimist" which has different but complimentary information that helps build a fuller picture of the author's ideas.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-27-15
Good book but a little disappointing on depth
I just finished The Evolution of Everything and it was hard to stop listening at times. I will re-listen to it. There were many good spots that I found educational and thought provoking. However, there were also several chapters that became more political commentary on current issues rather than an indepth exploration of the "evolution" of the subject. It could have been that Mr. Ridley did not want to lose his audience in the weeds of history, which I understand. Still, I would have preferred more historical perspective. Overall I found the book quite useful and informative.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Rockyroost
- 02-17-16
excellent overview of a view of societal evolution
I enjoyed this book with its extensive review of examples of societal evolution from history, economics, politics, science, and all facets of life.
More discussion of the impact of the asymmetries of power in society would strengthen his argument.
well worth the investment in time.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Danny Gratrx
- 04-29-16
Another Reason to be amazed at Darwinian Evolution
I have always loved Datein's Theory but my eyes were really opened to see how it applies to almost everything. Especially the chapters on how governments mess up what they try to design instead of getting out of the way to let the small interactions between individuals evolve the processes. The chapter on the developement of the 2008 economic crises was very illuminating.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Ex
- 09-08-16
performer is annoying
smug and arrogant in the delivery of a fairly smug topic. the content itself was interesting. disagreed with some assessments, but over all fairly convincing and well argued.
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- Alex Bejan
- 11-27-15
more political ranting than science
For this author everything evolves (true), except for government, public schools, public health - you get the idea. And he thinks that foaming at his mouth about them is going to bring them back on the evolutionary track. Sadly, despite having read, or at least quoting from all the right books, he doesn't understand evolution, for he misses completely the fact that evolution designs and relies on its design for the next steps in the process. He thinks structured, free education is bad and should be replaced by private (or even better, home) schooling, with an emphasis on autodidacticism. He compiles a lot of ideas and facts, but his central thesis is not at all original or even new.
So, don't waste your time - if you want something in the subject, perhaps Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From is one I can recommend.
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- John Madany
- 11-08-15
Charles Darwin gave credit to the Creator
What did you love best about The Evolution of Everything?
Thorough research
Have you listened to any of Steven Crossley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No.
Any additional comments?
An excellent book, well researched and variable reading. I am very conscious about the dangers of top-down planning and the harm that it will cause. I wholeheartedly agree with one of the concluding in lines of the book, “people with grand plans cause pain and suffering along the way.” Bottom up solutions evolve organically and are the source of progress.
I take one major exception with the author, he often calls top-down activities “creationist”. Believing in a creator in no way implies that one is a supporter of top-down solutions. The people who support top-down solutions take the place of deity. In order to make a top-down solution it assumes god-like knowledge which no human or group of humans can possibly have.
Charles Darwin wrote in the On the Origin of Species “there is grandeur in this view of life, with several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planett has gone circling on according to the effects of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved”
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6 people found this helpful
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- Matthew
- 01-02-19
Fantastic!
Amazing how the predominant theme of evolutions stands out in all forms of life, human or otherwise, bar none. In it are history lessons, morality, and the age old struggle of life to continue unabashed for the good of the individual and thereby the good of the whole vs the corrupt powers that wish to control others for their own perpetration and gain. Let life evolve!
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4 people found this helpful
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- M. Young
- 04-25-16
The world is organized from the bottom up not top down
Now that you have read the title, I saved you the bother of reading the book. The book is too repetitive. I gave up a few hours in when the author explained why there's so much diversity of life in the tropics and so little at the poles. Somewhere buried in explanation may have been the concept that the tropics have more environment diversity conducive to life on Earth.
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3 people found this helpful