Edited by author 06-08-2001 03:43 PM
I've since finished reading Nonzero, and the biological half (really closer to a quarter) of the book was just as interesting and in line with my thinking as the first half, though it didn't go into as much depth as the first half. One reason for this might be that it's a book for a popular audience, and writing about human history is maybe inherently more interesting than writing about biology.

The difference from my thinking and Wright's book is one of emphasis. I'd like to examine more the role of specialization. I'd like to examine the dynamic surrounding the impetus for an entity to specialize and how that specialization may be rewarded because it's valuable and heavily used by a society, in turn causing greater interdependence within the society (be it humans or cells). Wright discusses many ways that entities cooperate -- he doesn't focus particularly on specialization. In fact I think he uses the word very infrequently.

But that's almost hair splitting, and it's certainly not a criticism of Nonzero, which I'd highly recommend to anyone who's followed this thread.