Matt Ridley on The Rational Optimist & 'Ideas Having Sex'

Best-selling science writer Matt Ridley's latest book is The Rational Optimist, which explains why the author is upbeat on the prospects of a planet and a civilization that seems to lurch from one pending political, economic, or environmental catastrophe to another.

Doomsayers have it all wrong, writes Ridley, who argues that prosperity and innovation have outraced even the visions of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. He argues:

"The phrase diminishing returns is such a cliché that few people give it much thought. Picking out the pecans from a bowl of salted nuts gives diminishing returns: The pieces of pecan in the bowl get rarer and smaller. The fingers keep finding almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, or even—God forbid—Brazil nuts. Gradually the bowl, like a moribund gold mine, ceases to yield decent returns of pecan.

Now imagine a bowl of nuts that has the opposite character. The more pecans you take, the larger and more numerous they grow. That is the human experience for the last 100,000 years. The global nut bowl has yielded ever more pecans."

Reason's own science correspondent Ronald Bailey talked with Ridley recently in Washington, D.C. They discuss Ridley's book, his hopes for the future, and the policies that can improve - or undermine - the prospects for our future.



Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg, who also edited the segment.

Approximately 10 minutes.

[Trepur]

May I suggest you read Civilization: The West and the Rest?

[kevd]

There seem to be some conflicting views on the Arabian contribution to Trade and Math. The Muslim Arabs did not "invent" math, they borrowed systems from India and Greece and added their own ideas which spread to Europe via Spain and the Byzantine Empire. "Algebra" and "Algorithm" originate from the 9th century Persian, Al-Khwārizmī. Trade was key to the spread of the Empire, stretching from Spain to India however much of the trade network was established through conquest, much like the Romans

[lancsFrogger]

bizarre that people will pay money to listen to matt ridley talk about stuff he knows next to nothing about

maybe i should give it a go?

[andristic]

@furyofbongos did you even listen to the rest of the talk after he said that?

[shampoovta]

I liked this. 2 +1 = 3 and 3 is better than 2 and 1 on there own. OR. Man and woman make baby that is an improvement on the parents.

I like to call this idea cut and paste. Use two existing things to make a third thing that is better than the two parts it is made up of.

This idea can apply to anything I can think of.