Stories, Dice, and Rocks That Think: How Humans Learned to See the Future--and Shape It

by Byron Reese

Overview

"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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637741351
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	582 KB

About the Author

Byron Reese is an Austin-based entrepreneur with a quarter-century of experience building and running technology companies. He is a recognized authority on AI and holds a number of technology patents. In addition, he is a futurist with a strong conviction that technology will help bring about a new golden age of humanity. He gives talks around the world about how technology is changing work, education, and culture. He is the author of four books on technology, his most recent was described by The New York Times as "entertaining and engaging."
 
Bloomberg Businessweek credits Byron with having "quietly pioneered a new breed of media company." The Financial Times of London reported that he "is typical of the new wave of internet entrepreneurs out to turn the economics of the media industry on its head." Byron and his work have been featured in hundreds of news outlets, including New York Times, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, NPR, and the LA Times Magazine.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Act I Stories

Two Million Years Ago 7

Becoming Us 11

The Awakening 21

That Voice in Your Head 27

The Origin of Language 31

Spoken Language 37

Nonhuman Languages 45

How Did the Awakening Happen? 55

The Stories We Tell Ourselves 65

What Makes a Story? 69

Told Stories 87

Why Tell Stories? 95

The Timeline of Tales 97

Archetypal Stories 109

The Twenty Purposes of Told Stories 117

In Closing 135

Act II Dice

The Foreseeable Future 139

The Problem of Points 151

What Did We Know Prior to 1654? 159

Why Not Earlier? 167

A Numerical Reality 171

Determinism's Limit 175

Randomness's Miracle 179

Probabilistic Thinking 185

Many Possible Futures 191

Probability Explodes onto the World 195

Death and Taxes 199

Laws 205

Data 213

Is That Normal? 219

Eugenics 225

The Next Big Thing 231

Act III Rocks that Think

Progress 239

Behold the Wonder! 245

AI 101 251

Digital Mirror 259

The Fears 265

The Far Future 275

Epilogue 279

Acknowledgments 281

Index 283

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"From storytelling and heritage passed down between generations to examples of synchronicity in action and its development and influence on belief systems and human predictions and interpretations of the world, Byron Reese gets to the heart of what makes humans different from all others."
—Midwest Book Review

"We found the book insightful, thought provoking and well worth reading. You will come away smarter . . . Definitely one for the cooler autumn evenings to read."
—Irish Tech News