Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container ...
Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people’s lives as never before. The pessimists who dominate public discourse insist that we will soon reach a turning point and things will start to get worse. But they have been saying this for two hundred years. Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair. This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.
楼主是这本书的翻译。 这本书交稿之后,前后两位审稿的编辑不约而同地对我说了类似的话: “看了你的译文感觉意思有点费解,查了原文之后才懂了。” 言外之意是,译文似乎并不算错,但还不如原文好理解。 比如原文有一句话是这样: It is my contention that in looking i...
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创新进化史:一股永远向上的力量 The biological, cultural and economic forces behind human progress 人类进步背后是怎样的生物、文化和经济力量? May 13th 2010 | From The Economist print edition The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. By Matt Ridley. H...
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0 有用 胸无大志的青年 2023-08-06 21:30:13 上海
观点鲜明。但长篇大论地试图说服读者,读起来很乏味。
0 有用 Naruto 2024-10-27 23:05:50 浙江
交易、信任、制度的确立。有趣的视角
1 有用 胡天翼 2010-11-17 20:07:32
这是一本告诉大家不要“胡思乱想,好好干活就行”的书。讲的道理基本没有问题,可以算作科普书。
1 有用 moviejunkie 2012-07-18 17:54:58
对环保控,可再生能源控,田园牧歌控,全球变暖控,“今不如昔”控等各种末世悲观小清新的有理有据的驳斥。《Quest》似的的科普大百科全书。
1 有用 TimberNord 2019-12-07 09:56:09
i honestly don't know how i m supposed to feel about this book 我 smell 意识形态说教 but i hate 意识形态 说教 但是 这书 写得 确实 蛮 readable 我好难