The Gambling Animal: Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak – and the Bets That Risk it All

This is a masterful integration of scientific insights on the human path to ecological domination [and] many-faceted scholarly work made accessible to the intelligent non-specialist ... it is behavioral economics at its best -- George Ainslie, behavioural economist and author of Breakdown of Will This valuable and highly enjoyable book offers a fresh perspective: human evolution as a story of collective risk management, seasoned with a bit of luck. The Gambling Animal takes us on a tour through the gambles of life, from the survival struggles of early hominids to the allure of video poker to our high-stakes wager on climate change. If you are curious about humanity's evolutionary gamble, this book is for you -- Gerd Gigerenzer, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development A fascinating exploration of the way people who are individually risk-averse take big risks collectively, including now gambling with the existence of humanity. The authors weave together insights from economics and evolutionary science to paint a persuasive picture of how humans' social brains - developed in response to environmental uncertainty - have given us a uniquely powerful but dangerously flawed type of intelligence -- Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and author of Cogs & Monsters A sweeping and page-turning story of how humans - and other animals - manage the myriad risks that continually face us. The authors make a compelling case that the management of risk shapes whether we flourish (or perish) both as individuals, and as a species. -- Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School and author of The Mind is Flat Praise for Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalised (with James Ladyman) -- : A book can be important, although its main claims seem to the reader to be as controversial at the end of the book as they were at the beginning ... So it is with Every Thing Must Go ... An enticing work -- Jeremy Butterfield * TLS * Ross's broadside against traditional analytic metaphysics embodies the most admirable characteristics of a good slap across the face: it is forceful, frank, and delivered in response to sufficient provocation -- P. Kyle Stanford, author of Exceeding Our Grasp