Nonzero argues that human history can be explained by non-zero-sum interactions, where all parties benefit, and that these interactions are the engine of human progress.

Key ideas:

• Cooperation between cells and organisms has led to the development of complex life.
• Human history has been a cultural evolution towards increasing complexity.
• This cultural evolution results from an increase in non-zero-sum interactions.
• Technological innovations accelerate cultural evolution.
• Competition can foster non-zero-sum cooperation.
• Human progress continues even during periods of chaos and stagnation.
• Cultural evolution tends towards positive moral progress.
• Our current era is a dangerous, yet promising evolutionary threshold.
• Life on Earth likely has a higher purpose, with a tendency towards increasing complexity, flexibility, intelligence, and goodness.
• Life on Earth has a long history of cooperation, leading it to evolve towards ever-increasing complexity.