Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think

Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think

by Byron Reese
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 23/08/2022

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"Byron Reese gets to the heart of what makes humans different from all others." —Midwest Book Review


What makes the human mind so unique? And how did we get this way?


This fascinating tale explores the three leaps in our history that made us what we are—and will change how you think about our future.


Look around. Clearly, we humans are radically different from the other creatures on this planet. But why? Where are the Bronze Age beavers? The Iron Age iguanas? In Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think, Byron Reese argues that we owe our special status to our ability to imagine the future and recall the past, escaping the perpetual present that all other living creatures are trapped in.


Envisioning human history as the development of a societal superorganism he names Agora, Reese shows us how this escape enabled us to share knowledge on an unprecedented scale, and predict—and eventually master—the future.


Thoughtful, witty, and compulsively readable, Reese unravels our history as an intelligent species in three acts:


Act I: Ancient humans undergo “the awakening,” developing the cognitive ability to mentally time-travel using language


Act II: In 17th century France, the mathematical framework known as 'probability theory' is born—a science for seeing into the future that we used to build the modern world


Act III: Beginning with the invention of the computer chip, humanity creates machines to gaze into the future with even more precision, overcoming the limits of our brains


A fresh new look at the history and destiny of humanity, readers will come away from Stories, Dice, and Rocks that Think with a new understanding of what they are—not just another animal, but a creature with a mastery of time itself.

ISBN:
9781637741351
9781637741351
Category:
History of science
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
23-08-2022
Language:
English
Publisher:
BenBella Books
Byron Reese

Byron Reese is the CEO and publisher of the technology research company Gigaom, and the founder of several high-tech companies. He has spent the better part of his life exploring the interplay of technology with human history. Reese has obtained or has pending patents in disciplines as varied as crowdsourcing, content creation, and psychographics.

The websites he has launched, which cover the intersection of technology, business, science, and history, have together received over a billion visitors. He is the author of the acclaimed book, Infinite Progress: How Technology and the Internet Will End Ignorance, Disease, Hunger, Poverty, and War. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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