There is nothing quite like The Spirit of the Game - it defies categories. The book offers a unique personal history of the world, integrating the variety of human endeavorr into a coherent world-view. It covers mathematics, philosophy, science, business and economics, politics, linguistics, and art as well as the ultimate questions of value - human creativity in all its forms. The book presents a penetrating critique of Western culture, warts and all, but the author steers clear of fashionable doomsday scenarios. Instead he foresees a major discontinuity - a new hypercycle - which will amount to an unprecedented challenge for mankind. Never have the threats and the opportunities been so great.