Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
E. O. WILSONAnts have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.
E. O. WILSONIn 2010, my two Harvard mathematician colleagues and I dismantled kin-selection theory, which was the reigning theory of the origin of altruism at the time.
E. O. WILSONThe two major challenges for the 21st century are to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can.
E. O. WILSONWithout a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.
E. O. WILSONI had reached a point in my career in which I was ready to try something new in my writing, and the idea of a novel has always been in the back of my mind.
E. O. WILSONPeople respect nonfiction but they read novels.
E. O. WILSONIf all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago.
E. O. WILSONEvery kid has a bug period… I never grew out of mine.
E. O. WILSONOf course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.
E. O. WILSONAn individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being’s, can learn a maze; the kind we use is a simple rat maze in a laboratory. They can learn it about one-half as fast as a rat.
E. O. WILSONThe world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.
E. O. WILSONWe have decommissioned natural selection and must now look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become.
E. O. WILSONWe are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
E. O. WILSONBy any reasonable measure of achievement, the faith of the Enlightenment thinkers in science was justified.
E. O. WILSONDestroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
E. O. WILSONIt’s obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life – for 8 billion or more people – without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.
E. O. WILSON