Blueprint The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Blueprint The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society is a political and social science book by author Nicholas A. Christakis. Drawing on advancements in the social sciences, neurosciences and cyber sciences, Blueprint shows why evolution sets us on a humanitarian path. In uncovering the ancient origins of kindness in civilization, Blueprint shows that our genes shape societies for our well-being, in a feedback loop spanning thousands of years.

Here are the top 3 reviews and comments that readers love about this fascinating book.

Review 1: Blueprint The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society audiobook by Tristan

Great book, but skip the first few chapters.

Most of the book is deeply insightful and entertaining. Strangely, however, his first few chapters (entitled “unintentional societies” and “intentional societies”) are tedious. In these, he describes the experience of small groups of humans shipwrecked around the world, of communes, and other microcosms of human social life. One might think this would be a great opportunity to tell entertaining stories, but it’s mostly just a barrage of details. However, the rest of the book is truly wonderful. I suggest simply skipping the start, and getting to the good stuff.

Review 2: Blueprint The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society audiobook by Jonas Blomberg Ghini

Many interesting thoughts

There are so many interesting thoughts put forth in this work, I cannot really do them all justice in a short review like this. I will point out a few important facets, however.

For one, I think it is on the one hand obvious, and on the other, revolutionary, that human societies may have specific genetic underpinnings. Going into this, I had a slight expectation that Christakis’s words could be construed to support what in the extreme would be eugenics. However, I do not believe this is the case. As far as I can tell, Christakis and the team of scientists he works with, have managed to build a solid case for the proposition that there exists some specific genetic drive to form societies, and that these genetic drives constrain what a “good” society might be. It will always be difficult to avoid the cultural bias towards ones own society, but Christakis does a good job of bringing in very different perspectives and never gives the impression of finding standard Western culture to be superior or somehow “normal”. When speaking of “good”, he means more as a measure of the extent to which it lets individuals thrive, how long term sustainable the model is, whether it breaks with powerful human tendencies, etc. So there is no moral judgement passed herein.

Another, very fascinating thing he brings up is that he and others find evidence in support of good and evil being codependent; if humans had no capacity for evil, we might not have a capacity for good. This can, of course, change over evolutionary time. But as it stands, it seems that we, humans, are a sort of blend of the bonobo’s relaxed and favour based society, and the somewhat disturbing xenophobic tendency of the chimpanzee. Our capacity for great kindness towards “our own” necessitates a capacity for depravity against “the other”. Knowing this means, as individuals, we may be able to do something about it. This is not to say that we need “balance” on the individual level, that if you help an old lady over the street one day, you have to trip some other old lady another day. It is more just an observation that it seems, as humans, we are still tied quite firmly to the somewhat disappointing idea of in- and out-groups. We have a hard time liking those that aren’t us, and only by concerted effort can we overcome this undesirable trait.

Also, as a pro tip to those finding themselves stranded with many others after a shipwreck or plane crash; don’t do the “every man for himself” shtick. Turns out, mercy and kindness pays off in terms of likelihood of survival, while the vileness of selfishness goes hand in hand with only a small fraction of marooned making it out alive.

—- Second listen —-

I’ve not much to add after the second listen; what sticks out the most to me remains the two main points noted above.

That said, Christakis’s take on animal culture is interesting. Chimps can learn from each other, and so can orcas, elephants, and other animals. And animals have friends in very similar ways to humans. It all simply means humans are not all that special, we’re just a bit better at thinking than other animals are.

Review 3: Blueprint The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society audiobook by Domenick Zero

An optimist view of the human condition grounded in science

Christakis pulls together up to date knowledge of natural and social sciences without disparaging either into a very optimistic view of our future. This is something that I needed in face of what is going on around the world today. I do hope the social blueprint that he describes will right us before we destroy ourselves and our beautiful planet with us.

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