At some point, human intelligence became collective and cumulative in a way that happened to no other animal. (Location 109)

Note: The Rational Optimist

Humanity is experiencing an extraordinary burst of evolutionary change, driven by good old-fashioned Darwinian natural selection. But it is selection among ideas, not among genes. (Location 111)

Note: Natural selection of ideas

If culture consisted simply of learning habits from others, it would soon stagnate. For culture to turn cumulative, ideas needed to meet and mate. (Location 133)

Note: Ideas Shoud meet and mate

As a broad generalisation, the more people trust each other in a society, the more prosperous that society is, and trust growth seems to precede income growth. (Location 1381)

Note: Trust based society

John Clippinger draws an optimistic conclusion: ‘The success of trust-based peer organizations such as eBay, Wikipedia, and the open-source movement, indicates that trust is a highly expandable network property.’ (Location 1411)

My point is simply this: with frequent setbacks, trust has gradually and progressively grown, spread and deepened during human history, because of exchange. Exchange breeds trust as much as vice versa. (Location 1418)

Innovation, whether in the form of new technology or new ways of organising the world, can destroy as well as create. (Location 1609)

Human history is driven by a co-evolution of rules and tools. The increasing specialisation of the human species, and the enlarging habit of exchange, are the root cause of innovation in both. (Location 1686)