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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined [More]

The raging combatants form a blur on all sides.

From using protests in Egypt to promote clothing lines to a viral campaign video, we take a look at the worst social media blunders of 2011 and what you can learn from them. Social media is immediate. An insensitive or inaccurate tweet can quickly make it around the world before any apology or explanation can even be typed.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), worldwide military expenditures have been growing annually for the past 15 years, and between 15 and 20 major armed conflicts--yes, wars--are in progress as you read this. All told, upward of 175 million people died in war-related violence during the 20th century, plus another eight million because of conflicts among individuals. Even so, according to a weighty new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Viking Adult, 2011), by Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker , the "better angels" of human nature have actually brought about a dramatic reduction in violence during the past few millennia.

On July 22, 2011, a 32-year-old Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik opened fire on participants in a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya after exploding a bomb in Oslo, resulting in 77 dead, the worst tragedy in Norway since World War II.

Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, is the author of the best-selling books, “How the Mind Works,” and “The Blank Slate.” But he is also a public intellectual, devoted to bringing the ideas of academia to questions of broad public interest. His latest work is an ambitious attempt to understand the origins, history--and perhaps the future--of human violence.

Creator of one of the best-selling video game franchises in history, Will Wright, rebuts criticisms of violent video games and gives optimism for educational entertainment. One of the best-selling video game franchises in history isn't about killing hookers, decapitating ninjas, or nuking aliens--it's about raising families and leading prosperous cities. Will Wright , creator of SimCity, the seminal city planning simulator, and the life-journey spinoff, The Sims, tells Fast Company that video game critics, especially critics of violent video games, have overlooked that there's little difference between the success of Grand Theft Auto and The Sims--and, why this fact should make educators optimistic for the future of deeply educational video games