Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century - Couverture rigide

Bloom, Howard

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1620456060 ISBN 13 : 9781620456064

Editeur : Trade Paper Press, 2001

Synopsis

"As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long-standing interest in evolution, I'll just assimilate Howard Bloom's accomplishment and my amazement." -DAVID SMILLIE, Visiting Professor of Zoology, Duke University

In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom--one of today's preeminent thinkers--offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. He shows how plants and animals (including humans) have evolved together as components of a worldwide learning machine. He describes the network of life on Earth as one that is, in fact, a "complex adaptive system," a global brain in which each of us plays a sometimes conscious, sometimes unknowing role, and he reveals that the World Wide Web is just the latest step in the development of this brain.

These are theories as important as they are radical. Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion-member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world.

Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality.
Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution. It is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

"A soaring song of songs about the amorous origins of the world, and its almost medieval urge to copulate." Kevin Kelly, Editor–at–Large of Wired, author New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World and Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World.

"Howard Bloom′s Global Brain is filled with scientific firsts. It is the first book to make a strong, solidly backed, and theoretically–original case that we do not live the lonely lives of selfish beings driven by selfish genes, but are parts of a larger whole. It is the first to propose that sociality was implicit in the start of the universe––the Big Bang. Global Brain is the first book to present strong evidence that evolutionary, biological, perceptual, and emotional mechanisms have made us parts of a social learning machine––a mass mind which includes all species of life, not just humankind. It is the first to take this idea out of the realm of mysticism and into the sphere of hard–nosed, data–derived reality. And it is one of the few books which carry off such grand visions with energy, excitement, and keen insight." Elizabeth Loftus, immediate past president, American Psychological Society, author, Witness for the Defense and The Myth of Repressed Memory

"This lusty tome generated by Bloom′s voracious reading habit and extraordinary talent for explanation proclaims that groups of individuals–from people to vervet monkeys to bacteria–organize themselves, create novelty, alter their surroundings, and triumph to leave more offspring than loner individuals. A stunning commitment to scientific evidence, this sequel to The Lucifer Principle ought to purge the academic world of ′selfish genes′ and the neodarwinist dogma of ′individual selection′." Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor, University of Massachusetts, recipient of a 1999 National Medal of Science, author of Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution.

"Howard Bloom has a fascinating vision of the interplay of life, and a compelling style which I found captivating." Nils Daulaire, President and CEO, Global Health Council.

"I have finished Howard Bloom′s two books, The Lucifer Principle and Global Brain, in that order, and am seriously awed, near overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he has done. I never expected to see, in any form, from any sector, such an accomplishment. I doubt there is a stronger intellect than Bloom′s on the planet." Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Evolution′s End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence.

"I have met God and he lives in Brooklyn. I could try to convince you that Howard Bloom is next on a very short list that includes Darwin, Freud, Einstein and Buckminster Fuller, but Howard can probably do a much better job of convincing you himself." Richard Metzger, creative director Disinfo.com, host of Channel Four TV Britain′s Disinfo Nation.

"In a superbly written and totally original argument, Howard Bloom continues his one–man tradition of tackling the taboo subjects. With a marvelously erudite survey of life and society from bacteria to the Internet, he demonstrates that group selection is for real and the group mind was there from the start. What we are entering now is but the latest phase in the evolution of the global brain. This is a must read for professionals and laymen alike." Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory, Rutgers University, co–author with Lionel Tiger of The Imperial Animal.

"A modern–day prophet, Bloom compels us to admit that evolution is a team sport. This is a picture of the universe in which human emotions find their basis in the survival of matter, and the atoms themselves are held together with love. I am awestruck." Douglas Rushkoff–author of Media Virus, Coercion, and Ecstasy Club.

"...This is a clever book, meticulously researched, beautifully written, and well worth reading..." (Michael Shermer, The Washington Post Book World)

Quatrième de couverture

"As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long–standing interest in evolution, I′ll just assimilate Howard Bloom′s accomplishment and my amazement."–DAVID SMILLIE, Visiting Professor of Zoology, Duke University In this extraordinary follow–up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom–one of today′s preeminent thinkers–offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. He shows how plants and animals (including humans) have evolved together as components of a worldwide learning machine. He describes the network of life on Earth as one that is, in fact, a "complex adaptive system," a global brain in which each of us plays a sometimes conscious, sometimes unknowing role. and he reveals that the World Wide Web is just the latest step in the development of this brain. These are theories as important as they are radical. Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion–member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world. Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality.

Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution. It is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Trade Paper Press
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1620456060
• ISBN 13: 9781620456064
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 384
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible