Wired for Survival

Can We Hope?

After World War I, many thinkers despaired of deriving meaning from the world. Poets such as T.S. Eliot saw the world as a “senseless” wasteland and viewed humanity as “hollow.” Society now faces a similar crisis of confidence. The globe can seem like a terrible place in light of ongoing conflicts and global traumas like climate change, terrorism and food shortages. However, Nobel Prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling sees a different world. He sees a human race that has had the capacity to blow itself up since nuclear weapons were developed – but has managed not to do so. Rather than facing certain destruction, could humanity be “wired for survival”?

Adaptation, Survival and Change

Unlike animals, humans have the ability to rise above instinct and adapt to shifting situations. If humanity wants to survive, people must be adaptable. To take one challenging area of turmoil and change, look at economic growth. Since 2000, the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) has increased an average of 3.2% per year. That number doesn’t sound impressive until you compare it to past growth. From 1870 to 1913, a time of great economic growth, global GDP grew...