Enlightenment now
the case for reason, science, humanism, and progress
by Steven Pinker, Pablo Hermida Lazcano · first published 2018
52% recommend43% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Data-heavy case, with many graphs, that health, wealth, safety and happiness have improved over time. Suits readers who want evidence against cynicism about progress and the future.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data. In seventy-five graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enligh
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Steven Pinker's new book, Enlightenment Now, has a pretty compelling section on wealth/income inequality. The basic position - and I think the data supports this - is that it really doesn't matter what the top 1% are doing so long as the bottom…
on “Richest 1% on target to own two-thirds of all wealth by 2030” ↗Last night I read the "Happiness" chapter (no. 18) from Steven Pinker's fine book, Enlightenment Now, where he reviews data on loneliness in the US students (among two dozen other graphs in the first twenty chapters). Pinker implies social critics abuse the words "epidemic" and "crisis". After reviewing…
on “America's loneliness epidemic: A systemic risk to organizations” ↗…late, great Hans Rosling was superb at breaking down these dimensions in video form (eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo ) but if you want the real deal, I recommend Steven Pinker's excellent "Enlightenment Now". 3. I couldn't care less that Intel has "stalled" since you can now buy a Raspberry Pi that pwns my first computer by an order of magnitude or three and costs less than $25. Meanwhile, Apple is refocusing…
on “It's Cold in the Information Age” ↗For the full book length explanation of why your attitude is bad for everyone, read Enlightenment Now. The short version is that in a society where justice relies on the strength of the individual, there is more conflict, more injury, and more murder. In areas of the USA with more of an honor culture,…
on “Woman Is Sentenced to 43 Years for Criticizing Thai Monarchy” ↗…clicks. But it's not supported by the data. Whether we all would benefit from rebalancing the wealth distribution is a different question. reference: Humanprogress.org, and Steven Pinker's new book, "Enlightenment Now" (highly recommended)
on “Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers” ↗I recommend Steven Pinker's “Enlightenment Now” as an antidote to pessimistic views of the future with regards to climate change: We have to act, but the outlook is not as grim as many environmentalists paint it. We are acting, and we still have enough…
on “Hackable humans and digital dictators: Q&A with Yuval Noah Harari” ↗Y’all need to read Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. Life is better than it ever has been, and there’s an embarrassing amount of data backing up that claim. We’re depressed because our brains didn’t evolve to live in this kind of society,…
on “Depression is increasing among Americans reaching middle age” ↗Let me add two books that are among the best I've ever read: * "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress Hardcover," by Steven Pinker -- even if you disagree with him about some things (for example, on principle), the book is really worth a slow, careful…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗Yes! Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Astrophysics For People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson bonus round: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Shoedog by Phil Knight The Death of…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗…Peace and technological progress put us at the dawn of the Golden Age, and we're living it right now, setbacks like COVID notwithstanding. Steven Pinker puts forward a powerful argument to that effect in "Enlightenment Now", and it's hard to disagree when you look at the data. Literally none of that would be even possible under this philosophical framework.
on “John Gray: 'What can we learn from cats? Don't live in an imagined future'” ↗…change actual behavior. Therefore watching and discussing relationship movies is in line with what is known to actually change behavior. The two books that made this point most effectively to me were Enlightenment Now and Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow. The first in the context of how much the rise of fiction changed the amount of empathy that people in general had. And the second explains it in terms of how intellectual…
on “Divorce rate cut in half for couples who discussed relationship movies (2014)” ↗Steven Pinker's "Better Angels of Our Nature" and the sequel "Enlightenment Now" briefly helped to restore my faith that humanity is not entirely an evil virus best gone the way of the dinosaurs. Don't get me wrong though, these books are not easy reads. In the first one Pinker…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life?” ↗This is the theme of Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now. It compiles a tremendous amount of data and research on progress in health, wealth. justice, equality, and happiness. It is a great antidote to the distorted pessimistic view of reality that comes from…
on “The world is awful, the world is much better, the world can be much better” ↗> "Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychology professor, explores the gains in a terrific book due out next month, “Enlightenment Now,” in which he recounts the progress across a broad array of metrics, from health to wars, the environment to happiness, equal rights to quality of life." No one is going to agree on assigning value to…
on “2017 was probably the best year in the history of humanity” ↗> Giving up political news didn't make me happier, but it certainly reduced that niggling feeling that everything is headed towards doom. I highly recommend Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" (2018) as a cure against the doomsayers.
on “Giving up reading news will make us happier” ↗