I want to agree with Jared Diamond's argument but I am torn. The reading last night Bulliet seemed to suggest that the "hunter-gatherer" life style of the Paleolithic age was in fact a good way to live. Barring injury and assuming a successful hunt and foraging expedition, there remained as many as 19 hours left in the day for leisure activities. With little disease, limited warfare (iceman murder ?) and a small global population, why would human beings switch to an agrarian society that eventually perpetrated social and environmental ills on a massive scale. It must be that hunter gathering did not meet basic caloric needs or that agriculture was some how more efficient. I must read further.