The piece argues that human civilization depended less on early technology and more on rare cultural breakthroughs that curbed male reproductive greed, enabling stable cooperation among unrelated men. With 'every man a warrior' societies cannot support nerds, specialists, or complex tools; male–male peace is the substrate for technological growth.
— It reframes the origins and maintenance of civilization as a fragile social-innovation problem—managing mating competition—rather than a linear tech story, with implications for crime, family structure, and institutional norms.
Tyler Cowen
2025.10.09
50% relevant
The cited paper’s finding that high‑polygyny societies do not necessarily produce large cohorts of unmarried men complicates the claim that male–male mating exclusion is a primary driver of social instability and thus a key target for civilizational order.
Tove K
2025.08.25
100% relevant
“Numerous genetically unrelated males living together and comparatively peacefully dividing females between them might be equally against nature… I call them freak events.”
← Back to All Ideas