Home / Series / TED Talks / Aired Order / Season 2008 / Episode 57

Robert Wright: The logic of non-zero-sum progress

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.

English
  • Originally Aired April 15, 2008
  • Runtime 20 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network YouTube
  • Created February 16, 2025 by
    morbus
  • Modified February 16, 2025 by
    morbus