Human Survival Is Not a Zero-Sum Game

Jeremy Wallman
Jul 10, 2017 · 1 min read

For the first time in human history, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little. More people die from suicide than from violent crime and war. More people die from old age than from infectious diseases. Every indication is that these trends will continue into the foreseeable future, and at an exponential rate. These statistics tell an important story about the trajectory of human progress and our ability to prevail over externalities and the challenges we face to overcome the wars within us. Every generation writes a new chapter in human history. Generations before us have brought humanity to the edge of abundance — a world without war, disease poverty, and hunger. These causes of profound human suffering have been rapidly decreasing over the past several decades. It is time to finish the work, and we all have a role to play. Peter Diamandis said: “The world’s most precious resource is a persistent and passionate human mind”. Guided by compassion and an obligation to serve humanity, the creative force of the human intellect will make resource scarcity a distant memory of a darker time in our world, but only by cultivating cooperation, trust, and goodwill. Human survival is not and never was a zero-sum game.