This was not the first wave, but it was the first modern man.

Around 65,000 years ago a few hundred people left Africa.

Fossil fuel development led to end of slavery as machines powered by fossil fuels could produce more than slaves.

Humans consistently extinguished large game as they expanded.

Less time to cook, more foods available, and more calories consumed were made available by cooking, which also resulted in less energy needed to digest.

Fire allowed for smaller stomach which allowed for larger brain.

Improving IQ is due to lower end rising, partly due to nutrition.Abject poverty could largely end by 2035. The world's poor are advancing twice as fast as the rich.Markets in goods and services work so well that it's hard for them to fail to deliver efficiency.

Here are some interesting conclusions from his analysis: He refutes the counterclaims and explains why there have always been many irrelevant doomsday scenarios at any point in time. Matt Ridley provides a convincing evidence to show man's great progress in economic, farming, environmental concerns, cultural concerns, energy usage, and knowledge dimensions. Self-reliance equals subsistence interdependence through trade equals ingenuity and a boom in living standards. This means that those best at making houses make houses, those best at making food make food, and by trading we can each benefit from that which others do and vice versa. We created a system where everyone can specialize and trade with others who specialize. From the very early times when people separated into hunters and gatherers, we have moved to specialization and interdependence where almost no one individually catches their own food or makes their own shelter. He suggests that the ability to specialize and trade is what makes humans unique. The book is based on the premise that man evolved from cave dwellers through specialization and exchanging tools and ideas.

Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist is a history of progress from the Stone Age to current times.

The rational optimist