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比爾蓋茲對話史蒂芬平克
一本了不起的著作，Steven Pinker以廣泛的視野，敘述人類文明從健康到戰爭、從環境到幸福指數，從性別或總族的平權到生活品質等各種指標的具體進步。
這本書延續了Steven Pinker的前作The Better Angels of Our Nature展現了人類在歷史上進步的全貌，現今的人類更長壽，更健康，更自由，也更快樂。雖然今天我們面臨諸多重大的問題，但關鍵在於人類的理性，充分運用科學與理論找到明天的出路。
世界真的分崩離析了嗎？追求進步的觀念是否過時？認知科學家，也是公共知識分子的作者Steven Pinker回顧人類三千年的發展歷史，雖然現今充斥著負面的言論與混亂的世界情勢，對於未來的悲觀預言等，但作者提醒我們從資料與數據來看，在七十五張令人驚訝的圖表中，Steven Pinker指出人類不論在生活、健康、繁榮、安全、和平，知識教育與幸福感等各指標都在提升當中，這並不僅限於西方世界，而是整個世界在各領域都有普遍的進步。這並不是因為什麼宇宙中的神祕力量，而是啟蒙運動的恩賜，理性與科學能夠促使人類文明更加繁榮。
現在我們知道，透過全人類的共同努力，運用理性與科學讓世界更繁榮，但是今天有許多阻礙進步，或違反人性潮流的力量，例如部落主義、專制獨裁主義等。致力於政治，宗教或浪漫主義意識形態的許多評論家都反對採取後衛行動。其結果是腐蝕性的宿命論和破壞自由民主和全球合作的寶貴機構的意願。
這本書以豐富的知識、深度思想和優美的文筆，為理性，科學，人文為理念，是我們面對現今問題，繼續前進的理想。
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Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible?
If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred, and irrationality. Yet Steven Pinker shows that this is an illusion - a symptom of historical amnesia and statistical fallacies. If you follow the trendlines rather than the headlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer, happier, more peaceful, more stimulating and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent and inspiring value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it. These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress.
The challenges we face today are formidable, including inequality, climate change, Artificial Intelligence and nuclear weapons. But the way to deal with them is not to sink into despair or try to lurch back to a mythical idyllic past; it's to treat them as problems we can solve, as we have solved other problems in the past. In making the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century, Pinker shows how we can use our faculties of reason and sympathy to solve the problems that inevitably come with being products of evolution in an indifferent universe. We will never have a perfect world, but - defying the chorus of fatalism and reaction - we can continue to make it a better one.