Ideas Having Sex: How Money & Language Evolve Civilization w/ Matt Ridley (WiM574)

Matt Ridley joins me to explore the evolutionary nature of progress: why no one person can make a computer mouse, how money functions as a form of collective memory, and how ideas, like genes, evolve through exchange. We discuss the role of language, beauty, and costly signaling in shaping human behavior, the parallels between Adam Smith and Charles Darwin, why Bitcoin might be the next phase in the evolution of money, and reflect back on the corruption surrounding Covid, vaccines, and the pandemic response. Matt Ridley is a British science writer, journalist and businessman.