History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

Average customer rating:

What is the difference between a nip and a bite?
A true masterpiece!
Buzzwords mixed toghether in a pile of dross
Very good intro. to Bateson
Back In Print, Finally.

Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology
Gregory Bateson
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226039056

Book Description

Gregory Bateson was a philosopher, anthropologist, photographer, naturalist, and poet, as well as the husband and collaborator of Margaret Mead. With a new foreword by his daughter Mary Katherine Bateson, this classic anthology of his major work will continue to delight and inform generations of readers.

"This collection amounts to a retrospective exhibition of a working life. . . . Bateson has come to this position during a career that carried him not only into anthropology, for which he was first trained, but into psychiatry, genetics, and communication theory. . . . He . . . examines the nature of the mind, seeing it not as a nebulous something, somehow lodged somewhere in the body of each man, but as a network of interactions relating the individual with his society and his species and with the universe at large."—D. W. Harding, New York Review of Books

"[Bateson's] view of the world, of science, of culture, and of man is vast and challenging. His efforts at synthesis are tantalizingly and cryptically suggestive. . . .This is a book we should all read and ponder."—Roger Keesing, American Anthropologist

Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) was the author of Naven and Mind and Nature.

Customer Reviews:

What is the difference between a nip and a bite?.......2007-10-06

Really, what is the difference between a nip and a bite? They look the same, when you are watching kittens playing, how can you tell if they are biting in earnestness or just fooling around? Well you can't really tell, because a nip is a bite and isn't a bite all at the same time. However, you can tell, of course you can, because a nip has a sign posted on it saying "this is play", a bite on the other hand has a sign saying "this is for real". Moreover tells us Bateson - one of the greatest minds in social thought - whoever cannot tell the difference between a bite and a nip is in big trouble, because the sign stating "this is play" enables us to tell reality from imagination, thus safeguarding our sanity. "Steps in the ecology of the mind" is a profound statement on the mechanisms that make us tick, on the human condition.

A true masterpiece!.......2004-03-19

Bateson's writings are profoundly layered with meaning that a brief glance will overlook. His prolific influence can be found in sundry fields of study, including psychiatry, communication theory, and marriage and family therapy to name a few.

This is the type of book (among few) that can be read over and over again while discovering new facets of understanding every time.

I highly recommend the metalogues.

Buzzwords mixed toghether in a pile of dross.......2002-02-07

Take all the buzzwords in fashion in psychology and philosophy: classification, genotype, flexibility, somatic, discrete, threshold, characteristics, analytic... mix everything together and you get this book.
In other words there's not an ounce of meaning in those 700 pages, it's all worthless. No case studies, no examples, long phrases full of self importance written by someone who thinks he's an authority in everything from zen to medecine to evolution theory to archeology. Not only does he prove he doesn't understand anything, you'll laugh yourself silly reading any paragraph of the book at random.

If you have to read this for an assignment, you'd better change major and give it to your worst enemy for toilet paper. That's how low I think of this. And to think that a tree was felled for this. Ha !

Very good intro. to Bateson.......2001-12-04

Reading "Steps" helped save me from the unremitting horrors of divorce court; I'd probably be on a death row somewheres if not for this & some peripherally associated material. I am very pleased to see that it's in print again.

From those meticulous metalogues to those essays on the Theory of Logical Types, Bateson can mesmerize, if you're prepared for it. Especially enlightening is the lecture on the Treaty of Versailles & cybernetics; for Bateson, the two most important events of his lifetime: if you're going to deceive someone (the Fourteen Points), you'd better get an honest man (Woodrow Wilson) to do it.

"Steps" is to science & reason what Frost's "West Running Brook" is to poetry: an intense meditation, soliloquy & dialogue. It's worth your while.

Back In Print, Finally........2001-08-16

After my paperback copy of SEM decayed from several readings, I was more than a little disappointed to see that it had gone out of print. I'm glad that its finally back.

Absolutely, Bateson is a "sloppy thinker," just as Picasso was a "sloppy painter" by the standards of Vermeer and Rembrandt. And really a comparison to artists - not formal theorists - is the metric by which Bateson should be judged.

Why is it that Bateson attracts such loyalty? Because his writing illustrates a *process* of thinking, rather than a specific indisputable conclusion. Those who expend the time and effort to read Bateson - and in particular SEM - are rewarded with the certainty that the thinking process is as interesting as any possible conclusion. And it is somewhat more than "clever" that in the SEM dialogues, Bateson uses the very structure and form of his writings to illustrate the content he's explaining.

Indeed it is precisely that uncertainty which vexes "formal" theorists (such as the reviewer below). Bateson - as a systems thinker - was always more interested in process and context than in defining any literal end result. After all, what possible "proof" could be offered that dolphins are second-order thinkers because they can learn about learning?. How on earth could proof be gained that icons and verbalizations are mediated by dreaming?

I would offer this question to Bateson's critics: if his thinking is so irredeemably sloppy, what then is his lasting appeal? Why does he - among all the philosophers and scientists of the 20th century - continue to have such a loyal following? Name a single cybernetician or epistomologist who is commonly cited in contemporary philosphical thinking.

Book Description

“I often said before starting, that I had no doubt I should frequently repent of the whole undertaking.” So wrote Charles Darwin aboard The Beagle, bound for the Galapagos Islands and what would arguably become the greatest and most controversial discovery in scientific history. But the theory of evolution did not spring full-blown from the head of Darwin. Since the dawn of humanity, priests, philosophers, and scientists have debated the origin and development of life on earth, and with modern science, that debate shifted into high gear.

In this lively, deeply erudite work, Pulitzer Prize–winning science historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin’s “dangerous idea,” from its theoretical antecedents in the early nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and Wallace, to Watson and Crick’s stunning discovery of the DNA double helix, and to the triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising sociobiology today.

Along the way, Larson expertly places the scientific upheaval of evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian ethos of “survival of the fittest”; the emergence of Social Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to today’s world, where religious fundamentalists litigate for the right to teach “creation science” alongside evolution in U.S. public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in new and surprising directions.

Throughout, Larson trains his spotlight on the lives and careers of the scientists, explorers, and eccentrics whose collaborations and competitions have driven the theory of evolution forward. Here are portraits of Cuvier, Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Galton, Huxley, Mendel, Morgan, Fisher, Dobzhansky, Watson and Crick, W. D. Hamilton, E. O. Wilson, and many others. Celebrated as one of mankind’s crowning scientific achievements and reviled as a threat to our deepest values, the theory of evolution has utterly transformed our view of life, religion, origins, and the theory itself, and remains controversial, especially in the United States (where 90% of adults do not subscribe to the full Darwinian vision). Replete with fresh material and new insights, Evolution will educate and inform while taking readers on a fascinating journey of discovery.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Detailed history of an important theory.......2007-08-30

Larson's book is a thorough survey of the figures of history who contributed to the theory of evolution. From 18th century French naturalist Cuvier to modern British biologist Dawkins, this volume details the story and impact of those men, often delving into the religious implications of scientific findings, but focusing on the concepts of evolution itself. While the description of those concepts are sufficient, they aren't exactly stimulating, but the background anecdotes on each contributor give the book color enough. The book is a fascinating look at psychology and sociology as much as biology and would be a good introduction for even theologists due to its fairly subjective nature.

How Darwinism made headway among Christians.......2006-11-23

If, as Edward Larson says, Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" "dealt a body blow to traditional Western religious thought," then how in the world did it succeed as quickly as it did in a society that was, to put it mildly, staunchly devoted to Christianity?
Larson, a professor of both law and history at the University of Georgia, has been trying to explain that for years. "Evolution" is the third and last volume of that study. The second volume in his saga, "Summer of the Gods," which covered the Scopes "Monkey Trial," won the Pulitzer Prize.
It may come as a surprise to many Americans, especially anti-evolutionists, who typically treat Darwin as having arisen complete, sort of like Athena rising from the head of Zeus, that Biblical creationism was moribund by the time Darwin wrote.
"By 1859," Larson says, "the idea of evolution did not seem as foreign or threatening as it once did to members of Britain's rising elite."
Yet, "by the end of the 19th century, Darwinism was on the ropes."
Nothing evolves faster than evolutionism, and today Darwinism is all triumphant. Unlike, say, cosmology, where there are research programs that are based on views radically different from the prevalent Big Bang explanation, in biology it is all Darwinism.
There is some political agitation for a form of creationism called Intelligent Design, but there is no research program to explore the implications of Intelligent Design, nor does Intelligent Design propose any testable ideas.
Although antidarwinians often allege that Darwinian evolution is "not science" because it does not make testable predictions, this is incorrect.
The biggest prediction, one that mystified Darwin until his death, was that his theory required inheritance of characters to be particulate rather than blending.
That is, a child with a blue-eyed mother and a brown-eyed father would not (always) have green eyes, but (usually) blue or brown.
The discovery of the gene around 1900 provided the mechanism for particulate inheritance. Until then, doubts about Darwinism had begun to conquer the academy.
By 1942, the "modern synthesis" had solved most of the puzzles of "descent with modification," as Darwin had called his idea.
"The synthesis," Larson writes, "generated a seemingly endless stream of testable deductions about how populations should act under controlled conditions and in the wild. Time and again the theory passed these tests."
Although Darwin said he had difficulty in composing the idea of a benevolent god with the observed cruelty of life, Larson opines that, "In practice, acceptance of the modern synthesis coexisted with all manner of religious faith" by the centenary of "Origin" in 1959.
In the generation since, public opinion in America (though not elsewhere) has become increasingly antagonistic to evolution, though no one has been able to mount a credible challenge to the science of it.
Larson is not a controversialist. His "Evolution" is presented, as the subtitle says, as "the remarkable history of a scientific theory." His tale is an evenhanded account of a "theory that ripped through science and society, leaving little unchanged by its force," with both the ups and the downs given thoughtful attention.
If there's a fault to "Evolution" the book, it is that too much is compressed into a mere, though clear, 300 pages.

A Highly Useful Introduction to Evolution.......2006-11-08

Edward Larson's book on Evolution I found to be extremely useful and a valuable resource. Larson is the author of a fine study of the Scopes Trial called "Summer for the Gods." This Modern Library book in its 300 pages is chock full of useful information on this topic. This is not a book just about Darwin, though of course he is the central character, but more about what preceded Darwin and what went on after the Darwinian breakthrough, all the way to the present, in Europe and the U.S. In other words, this book places Darwin within a highly useful framework, what occurred before the "Origin of Species" and what transpired thereafter. An initial chapter focuses on pre-Darwinian developments beginning with the Enlightenment in biology and geology among other fields, including individuals such as Lamarck, Agassiz, Lyell, and Hutton. The next several chapters deal with Darwin and his argument, including the later "Descent of Man." A really superb chapter on the "Ascent of Evolutionism" discusses the debates that ensued after Darwin announced his theory, including non-Darwinian theories of evolution. Subsequent chapters deal with the "missing link" problem; the evolution of genetics; the development of eugenics; and the religious opposition (principally in this country) to evolution, including the Scopes trial and "intelligent design." The book concludes with an analysis of the most current theories relating to evolution, including the tremendous impact of DNA technology. Excellent notes, outstanding illustrations, and Larson once again demonstrates his ability to explain complicated scientific concepts to the layperson--a rare talent. A treasure trove of information on this topic presented in a highly attractive format--i.e., it is just fun to read.

Excellent General History of a Great Idea.......2006-09-06

I can't add a lot to the other reviews here. I encourage you to read some of the other reviews to get a summary of the book's contents - I won't repeat those here. I recommend skipping the couple of reviews that are by people simply pushing an agenda. I applaud the Deacon, who while not believing in evolution, still read the book and gave it a fair and honest review (his review proves that fair-minded people can disagree with an author but still give an intellectually honest evaluation).

I enjoyed the book because it is exactly what it says it is: the history of an idea. It is not a primer on evolution itself. This book would best be read by those who are already familiar with evolution (but not experts) and aware of the broad outlines of the history of the concept of evolution. This book will then provide a concise, enthralling review of the roots of evolution in late 18th, early 19th century thought all the way through to the status of evolutionary thinking today. You don't get an in depth treatment of any one topic, but Larson covers all the major players and sub theories and competing theories in just the right level of detail. If you have read a lot about aspects and episodes in the history of science and evolution, as I have, this book pulls it all together wonderfully.

By comparison, Gould gives a similar "history of evolutionary thinking" in his mammoth _Structure of Evolutionary Theory_. Larson's is far better organized, far clearer, and way more concise than Gould's rambling treatment. Gould's history is interesting and accurate, but much, much harder to get through. The "Notes on Further Reading" at the end of this book is very helpful (though I wish it was even more extensive).

In short, if you are interested in the origins of one of the greatest ideas in human history, or interested in how it battled to preeminence over the last 150 years, this is an excellent choice. Thank you Mr. Larson!

Another Success for the Modern Library Chronicles.......2006-08-12

I really enjoyed this book, as I have all the Modern Library Chronicles that I have read. I am a Christian; moreover, a evangelical, fundamentalist who am a deacon in my church, and I believe that this is a book that high school students (undergrads at least) should read.

In this book, Professor Larson follows the theory of evolution from its earliest beginnings to the modern day. This book reveals the different twists the theory has undergone throughout the years, and points out some of the problems still facing the theory. The book also shows the attacks many have made on the theory, attacks unfortunately based on passion, not science.

From the race between Darwin and Wallace as to who obtained credit for the theory of evolution, Huxley's arguments supporting the theory, Lamark's rise and fall, the Scopes-Monkey Trial to Gould's punctuated equilibrim, this book explains the various twists and theories of evolution is a easy to understand and readable manner; and unlike many treatistes, this book is a readible 368 pages.

This book is exactly what it claims to be; it is a HISTORY of the theory of evolution. If you are looking for a book that denegrates creationists or evolutionists, this is not for you. Neither is this book a strong tool for converting others to believe in evolution.

I still do not believe man evolved, or that one species can become a new species-i.e.-I do not believe in macro-evolution, but I would strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learing more about the theory of evolution-believer or not.

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

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Psychology as a Hard Science
Among the most important books I've read
Very Knowledgeable
One of a Handful of Revolutionary and Liberating References
Liberating Blueprint for Reform

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Steven Pinker
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670031518
Release Date: 2002-09-26

Book Description

Our conceptions of human nature affect everything aspect of our lives, from child-rearing to politics to morality to the arts. Yet many fear that scientific discoveries about innate patterns of thinking and feeling may be used to justify inequality, to subvert social change, and to dissolve personal responsibility.

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature and instead have embraced three dogmas: The Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), The Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and The Ghost in the Machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them.

Pinker provides calm in the stormy debate by disentangling the political and moral issues from the scientific ones. He shows that equality, compassion, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about an innately organized psyche. Pinker shows that the new sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution, far from being dangerous, are complementing observations about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide acclaim: irreverent wit, lucid exposition, and startling insight on matters great and small.

Customer Reviews:

Psychology as a Hard Science.......2007-09-10

Pinker reviews it better than I can in his introduction:
"When it comes o explaining thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock. To acknowledge human nature, many think, is to endorse racism, sexism, war, greed, genocide, nihilism, reactionary politics, and neglect of children and the disadvantaged. Any claim that the mind has an innate organization strikes people not as an hypothesis that might be incorrect but as a thought it is immoral to think."

Among the most important books I've read.......2007-08-22

Pinker provides a lucid explanation of the current state of knowledge on genetic influence on human behaviour and definitively debunks the "blank slate" idea that our culture and environment is the dominant factor.

I gained a real understanding of how humanity can behave in such apparently strange and arbitrary ways, and Pinker's exploration of the implications of this was well-reasoned and thought provoking.

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand human behaviour better.

Very Knowledgeable.......2007-05-13

A book on different subjects surrounding people, society, and especially how the genetic makeup of a person has a significant effect on who he/she is in that society. The book also analyzes how those innate predispositions sometimes do not make sense with current government policies as well as some mass public opinion. The author supports his opinions with scientific research and touches on subjects such as conservatives/liberals, art, feminism, violence, and parenting and often provides controversial views. For example, the author does not believe that violence on television has any significant effect on violence in society because most violent people are genetically "programmed" to be violent. He also analyzes many of the genetic predispositions with regard to evolution and selection for fitness such as women being better at language and humanities skills, in order to be better child raisers, and men being better at mathematical and spatial abilities so they could be better hunters.

One of a Handful of Revolutionary and Liberating References.......2007-05-13

This is a truly extraordinary book, some of the finest scholarship I have ever read, easily up there with E. O. Wilson's "Consilience" and other such works.

Four bridges from biology to culture: 1) cognitive science; 2) cognitive neuroscience; 3) behavioral genetics; and 4) evolutionary psychology. I am of course reminded of Stewart Brand, Howard Rheingold, and the long-standing views on Co-Evolution.

The author's primary and most adroitly presented view is that the human mind is NOT a blank slate, and that we must completely separate science from religion as well as politics, because in failing to recognize human nature, we are making bad decisions in many areas. He cites Chomsky as saying that children should grow a language, not learn it.

He sees culture and cognition as the essential "special sauce" for sustainable diversity and societal design. He sees culture as the means by which we construct and destruct.

I believe we are there, and the work of Tom Atlee ("Tao of Democracy") and Jim Rough ("Society's Breakthrough), along with the other books on the transpartisan list, are the end of the beginning. We can now evolve properly. The author outlines how religious dogma and political ideology harm society and science and humanity most severely.

He lists four fears of the dogmatic: 1) fear of inequality; 2) fear of imperfectability; 3) fear of determinism; and 4) fear of nihilism.

He focuses on the costs and consequences of self-deception, and the important not only of leaning to learn, but of learning to learn collaboratively rather than competitively. He emphasizes that reciprocal altruism works and as a Nobel Prize certified in the 1990's, trust lowers the cost of doing anything.

On pages 220-221 he discusses our need for intuitive physics, biology, engineering, psychology, special sense, number sense, sense of probability, economics, mental databases and logic, and language. This is precisely what the Earth Intelligence Network plans to fund with Medard Gabel's EarthGame. EarthGame will displace rote learning and structured prison-like education for many.

Part V discusses hot buttons, with a chapter for each: Politics, Violence, Gender/Rape, Children; and the Arts. He says that reality-based theory and practice work better than dogma-based ideological biases. Of course they do, but the majority of the public has dropped out and left thieves and morons in charge. We can fix that.

The ends brilliantly. Suffering does NOT ennoble, there is no noble savage, we must understand and craft the culture of man. As Will and Ariel Durant tell is "The Lessons of History," the only real revolution is in the mind of man. The author cites Richard Shweder and his trinity of autonomy, divinity, and community. There are 901 references over 43 pages and an amazing five-page list as an appendix, from Donald E. Brown, of Human Universals.

This is a transpartisan reference work of great importance.

All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Bk Currents)
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Doing Democracy
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right
The Lessons of History
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
The Republican War on Science
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

Liberating Blueprint for Reform.......2007-05-10

The Blank Slate - Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker's profound and thought provoking work "The Blank Slate" is both a guided tour through the cognitive neurosciences (sociobiology, behavioral genetics, evolutionary psychology among others); as well as a blueprint for social & political reform. This is despite the fact that much of the book is a detailed attack on the ideological doctrines that underpin traditional reformist agendas. He calls these the "holy trinity" of "a blank slate" (that human minds are totally plastic and formed for good or ill, success or failure, solely by environment, including education etc); of "the noble savage" (that culture and society are to blame for evils such as violence, discrimination etc); and of the "ghost in the machine" (that personality and agency do not reside in our brain but exists essentially as pure spirit outside the realms of biology or physics)

This is not to say Pinker advocates some sort of biological determinism or that there is a gene for every behavior. He explicitly and repeatedly denies such a stance. Heritability is not an "all or nothing" subject but a realm of seemingly limitless subtlety and complexity, but it is also decidedly not a realm of infinite plasticity.

A large part of the early chapters is spent explaining why such a work is needed - to justify the place of these sciences in the face of some very unscientific attacks on the works and persons of the pioneers in these fields.

We are then taken through a wonderful survey of the findings uncovered by the neurosciences that provide inescapable evidence of our common human nature.

I was personally captivated by the implications of an evolutionary understanding of the faculties of learning, and the alternative vision of school education as a place to acquire skills for living in a modern world, things for which evolution has not yet had time to select and produce instincts (in contrast to our instinctive and unschooled abilities to walk, to acquire language, to perceive intention behind other people's behavior etc). A whole new curriculum could be based on an understanding of what our brain can do easily and how to use these abilities to learn new and unintuitive skills such as mathematics and economics.

I was also particularly struck by a section in which he redefined the contrasting traditional political tendancies "left" and "right" into novel descriptors: "Utopian Vision" and "Tragic Vision", reflecting different underlying attitudes to human nature. Pinker himself says the neurosciences are coming down on the side of the Tragic Vision - an inherent and hence constrained human nature, but denies this means the "right" is necessarily right, or that the leftist impulse must be abandoned. He quotes numerous left-leaning philosophers and activists striving to realign the egalitarian agenda to the reality of a human nature whose millenia-old impulses have guided our species to survive and are impossible to eradicate. He then proceeds to analyse a series of "hot button" social topics (politics; violence, including crime and war; gender and rape; childhood and personality development; and art). In each topic his discussion discomforts the prevailing orthodoxy but his explanation of the science supporting his case is always prefixed by a careful statement and affirmation of liberal and progressive goals and principles and repudiation of injustice, discrimination or oppression. In each case his aim is to show how genuine progress might be achievable and constructive if account is taken of scientifically demonstrated and ineradicable human tendencies rather than holding dogmas or utopian theories based on the blank slate and its fellows. This is not merely a matter of theory but of great social import and potentially lifesaving. For instance his insistence that the dogma of "rape not being about sex but about power" is biologically unsustainable and effectively shuts even the consideration of alternative biologically-grounded approaches to its eradication, instead of the current hopeless attempts to reprogram the brain of offenders. Likewise his analysis of violence as an evolutionary strategy rather than a cultural artefact that could be wished away by cultural re-engineering offers policy-makers promising and practical lines of approach to reduce violent crime in our communities and reduce wars between nations.

The practicality of his analysis offers a ready made political program for any party brave enough to defy both the anti-cognitive scientific intelligentia of the left and the religious fundamentalists of the right, and to pitch a new course appealing to the common sense and common nature of ordinary concerned citizens.

I found this to be a liberating book, freeing me to trust my own instincts for instance in childraising and art, rather than be bound by the controlling doctrines of a supposed expert class.

After reading it I am convinced a course in cognative neurosciences should be an essential prerequisite for students of humanities, especially philosophy, politics and law.

Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick

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This book should be required reading in all the schools
Evolution in Health and Disease
Excellent introduction to the ideas of evolutionary medicine

Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick
Noel T. Boaz
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471352616

Book Description

Human illnesses can be understood as damage to those adaptations that we took on at various stages in our evolution from pre-life molecules to modern Homo sapiens. Preventing these illnesses entails avoiding what causes the damage-- which too frequently are the everyday hazards of twenty-first-century life, as the chart below shows:

Level of Evolution	Cause of adaptive failure	resulting disease or problem
Pre-life	Environmental poisons	Certain birth defects
Single cell (bacteria and amoeba-like)	Viral infection	Colds/flu/HIV
Morula (sponge-like)	Cellular stress	Cancer
Chordate	Physical stress	Back pain
Fish	Excess dietary salt	Hypertension/heart disease
Amphibian	Tobacco smoke	Lung cancer/emphysema
Lower primate	Excess dietary sugar	Diabetes mellitus
Higher primate	Vitamin C deficiency	Scurvy
Ape	Excess dietary protein	Gout
Homo sapiens	Reduced dietary variety	Nutritionaldiseases/food allergies

Customer Reviews:

This book should be required reading in all the schools.......2007-09-30

This is one of the four or five best books I have ever read. It explains our most important health problems in their evolutionary context, and it explains why diet and lifestyle changes are far superior to pills and surgery. Everyone should read this book in their youth, so that they can prevent the health problems that come with a lifetime of bad choices and bad medical care. Buy this book, and buy more copies for all your relatives and friends --- and buy one for your doctor so that she can do a better job for you.

Evolution in Health and Disease.......2005-09-18

This is a fascinating book, written in clear, lucid, and descriptive prose, and written for the non-specialist and specialist alike, exploring the impact of evolution on health and disease. The book introduces "evolutionary medicine" to help the reader make informed choices about his or her own health. No one who wants to live a long, healthy life can afford to ignore the important insights gleaned from evolution in this book. What worked when we were hunter-gatherers on the African savannas no longer works in modern society, and the changes in our modern environments have caused Homo sapiens to adapt poorly.

One of the key evolutionary concepts is an entity's adaptation to its environment: When all the body's organs and systems are operating optimally under the ideal evolutionary environments, both internally and externally, our bodies are concordant. When our bodies are out of sync with either environment, they begin to fail, and our bodies become discordant. The former is homeostasis and health, the latter is disease and dysfunction.

After a very short introduction to the essential Darwinian concepts, excellently and easily recapitulated, the author turns to the seventeen stages of human evolutionary development, beginning with prokaryotes as stage one and ending with Homo sapiens as stage seventeen millions of years later, and describing all the intermediary stages in between. Although not difficult, it's the only place where the reader might become pensive, if not impatient, thinking the author is off course. But the key to understanding the rest of the book depends on understanding the material presented in Chapter Two. Here are some of the insights in columnar outline:

LEVEL OF EVOLUTION, ADAPTIVE FAILURE, CONSEQUENCE

Pre-life, Environmental poisons, Birth defects
Single cell, Viral infection, Cold/Flu/HIV
Morula (sponge-like), Cellular stress, Cancer
Chordate, Physical stress, Back pain
Fish, Excess dietary salt, Heart disease
Amphibian, Tobacco smoke, Lung disease
Lower primate, Excess dietary sugar, Diabetes mellitus
Higher primate, Vitamin C deficiency, Scurvy
Ape, Excess dietary protein, Gout
Homo sapiens, Reduced dietary variety, Allergies

This is a partial list. Each of the seventeen stages co-exist in humans; this complexity is both to our advantage, and can be our downfall. Understanding how each stage of evolution works within us unlocks a wealth of information.

Obviously, the emphasis is on prevention, not treatment, although there are constructive, non-medical, non-surgical options discussed. Some of the ideas are extremely valuable and helpful, others are highly speculative and dubious. For example, one particularly difficult concept advocated by Boaz is a return to a Paleo Diet that is high in animal products (especially gamey meats), while avoiding indigestible beans, grains, and dairy. It might be the "ideal" diet, but it's an impossible one to follow, and even more difficult to find. Still, the insights can help guide one to nutrition from an evolutionary perspective. The chapter on our musculoskeletal system was by far my favorite; I suffer from many of the system's dysfunctions, and now realize why. I knew it was a failure to adapt, but exactly how was new to me.

Nearly every anatomical and physiological system is evaluated in evolutionary terms. I'd run out of space just outlining them. Suffice it to say, this is not the only book on evolutionary medicine. This new field is literally exploding. Certainly an excellent alternative is Randolph Nesse's and George Williams' "Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine." Both are equally competent and informative, the only difference is a matter of style and approach. Take a look at both books and find the one that suits your temperament best. I truly enjoyed both. Ignore either to your health's detriment.

Excellent introduction to the ideas of evolutionary medicine.......2003-03-10

This works as a general introduction to the nascent field of evolutionary medicine. Note well the word "health" in the title. One of the central ideas in evolutionary medicine is preserving health, and in general looking at medicine from the point of view of the healthy instead of from an overweening concentration on the sick. An ounce of prevention in evolutionary medicine is worth a whole ton of cure.

Another important idea is to look, in so far as possible, to our adaptations as evolutionary beings to see what we might be doing wrong today. For example, grasses with plump seeds of carbohydrates were in short supply before the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. There were wheats and ryes, wild oats and such, but their seeds were relatively small and required a lot of labor to harvest. Consequently, our ancestors on the savannahs and in the woodlands ate grain carbohydrates in small amounts. Now, of course, grains--especially rice, wheat and corn--are the staple foods everywhere in the world and we eat massive amounts of them.

Is this a problem? As Professor Boaz points out, evolutionary medicine suggests that it is. We are "carbohydrate intolerant" (Boaz uses the term "glucotoxicity," page 133) and cannot shut down our appetite for all the carbohydrates so tantalizingly available to us. They are especially enthralling when served up with salt and fats.

In the prehistory there were no supermarkets open 24-hours a day. Instead there were freezing winters and droughts that might last for months or more, sure to visit almost every human eventually. So when there was a bountifulness in the land we chowed down big time. And those of us who had the ability to put on fat could live out the times of famine better than any prehistoric runway model. And so our chubby guy- or chubby gal-genes were favored. Boaz calls this the "thrifty genotype."

However that virtue has become a fault. What to do? Boaz recommends exercise, for one thing. In the pre-history our ancestors managed to walk all the way around the world. They had no cars or easy chairs. That we can solve our fat problem by looking at the way our ancestors lived and emulate them, is the somewhat bitter pill of this book. And, by the way, this "medicine" (hard to take, as we all know) also works against heart attacks, gout and other modern diseases.

Boaz has gone to some considerable trouble to associate various "diseases" with 17 evolutionary levels of human structure and function. (There's a table on pages 19-25.) These levels are like the idea that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" in that some of the levels are similar to those stages in the embryo's development from single cell through bony fish and amphibian to mammal, all the way to us. What Boaz is adding here is the idea that certain diseases are associated with each level of development. For example, emphysema is associated with the amphibian level of adaptation while viral infections go all the way back to when our ancestors were just single cells.

This scheme is useful in helping us to understand disease. It is even helpful in treatment. But Boaz's formulation is no magic pill or cure-all. For the chronic diseases that plague those of us in the developed world there is no easy cure. Boaz recognizes a "discordance" between our evolutionary selves and the modern environment that is leading to these diseases. He uses a concept he calls "adaptive normality" that can guide us away from the discordance.

This is a very readable book requiring no prior expertise. It is obvious that Boaz wanted to reach the educated lay person with his ideas. For those of you new to the idea of evolutionary medicine, this will be an exciting book. Boaz does an excellent job of teaching us is how to think from an evolutionary perspective, which is something we all need to do.

Customer Reviews:

Simply fascinating.......2000-10-15

1931: Wall Street collapsed 2 years ago and the World is experiencing the Great Depression. United States, World's largest economy is in limbo. Italy is fascist since the 20s. France, soon to experience serious social instability, remains suspicious about Germany. Most Eastern European countries born in the aftermath of Versailles to contain Germany have become or are becoming dictatorships, except Czechoslovakia. In an attempt to secure Empire's loyalty and preserve British trade, the Ottawa Imperial conference transforms the British Empire into a Commonwealth of Nations and abandons the century old policy of free-trade to replace it by Imperial Tariffs preference. India, the backbone of the Empire is agitated by Hindu and Muslim protest. In the Middle East, Jewish terrorists destabilise British mandate on Palestine. Muslims in Iraq and Egypt would like to end British presence in the region. Komintern, the Communist International, for which the Great Depression is the confirmation that a capitalist economy cannot work, exploits Western weaknesses to promote a global proletarian revolution. Against all rules approved in 1919, Japan invades Manchuria, a wealthy Chinese province. British Treasury is still affected by WW I staggering costs and British Navy cannot afford to wage war nor allow Japan to take advantage in China. British-Chinese trade is vital and Shanghai alone is the single largest piece of foreign investment in the World.

Book Description

In Volume 1 of Game Theory and the Social Contract, Ken Binmore restated the problems of moral and political philosophy in the language of game theory. In Volume 2, Just Playing, he unveils his own controversial theory, which abandons the metaphysics of Immanuel Kant for the naturalistic approach to morality of David Hume. According to this viewpoint, a fairness norm is a convention that evolved to coordinate behavior on an equilibrium of a society's Game of Life. This approach allows Binmore to mount an evolutionary defense of Rawls's original position that escapes the utilitarian conclusions that follow when orthodox reasoning is applied with the traditional assumptions. Using ideas borrowed from the theory of bargaining and repeated games, Binmore is led instead to a form of egalitarianism that vindicates the intuitions that led Rawls to write his Theory of Justice.

Written for an interdisciplinary audience, Just Playing offers a panoramic tour through a range of new and disturbing insights that game theory brings to anthropology, biology, economics, philosophy, and psychology. It is essential reading for anyone who thinks it likely that ethics evolved along with the human species.

Customer Reviews:

Important Contribution to Political Philosophy.......2001-02-13

Binmore treats ethics not as a system of rules justified by Reason, but as by contrast, ethics the scientific study of how humans behave and think. Binmore reports extensively on contemporary ethnographies of hunter-gatherer societies, believing that such societies mirror the social and material conditions the human race faced during its formative period as a species. Such societies have no division of labor except for gender, and are politically egalitarian, decision-making power being quite equally distributed among the adult males of the community. Binmore infers that fairness norms must be self-enforcing, and cannot depend on a hierarchical leader (a "philosopher-king") to enforce ethical principals. Moreover, since a division of labor (except for gender) is absent, deliberations in such groups approximate the `original position.'

Binmore thus offers us a "coevolution of genes and culture" in which the acceptance of original position moral arguments is written into our genes, but the cultural content depends on local environmental conditions and random variation. Again drawing on the ethnographic literature, Binmore focuses on food sharing as the most important rule of justice to be decided by a foraging group. In foraging societies, high variance foodstuffs such as meat are equally shared, irrespective of who made the kill. Equal sharing is thus a moral rule justified by reasoning from the original position of hunters who do not know exactly which among them will be lucky or skilled.

Binmore uses evolutionary game theory to analyze social interactions. This adds a welcome degree of clarity to ethical reasoning. Indeed, Binmore is quite clear that all of his substantive results depend on the plausibility of the game theoretic models he presents and analyzes.

While fairness norms are biologically determined for Binmore, the players in Binmore's games are rational self-interested agents. Thus all of the results of two-person game theory based on the rational actor model can be deployed in analyzing social justice. It follows in particular that "[i]n a well-ordered society, each citizen honors the social contract because it is in his own self-interest to do so, provided that enough of his fellow citizens do the same." (5) There is no sense in which moral behavior is opposed to self-interested behavior. Moreover, since players do not behave ethically in bargaining, there is no sense in which the institutions resulting from their bargaining have any abstract normative standing. "Evolutionists simply seek to understand," says Binmore, "why some types of human organization survive better than others.... evolutionary ethics offers no authority whatsoever to those who wish to claim that some moral systems are somehow intrinsically superior to others.' (179)

Different societies can thus embrace different institutions because comparisons in the original position depend on `empathetic preferences' that are culturally specific. It is in part for this reason that Binmore calls himself a `whig,' by which he means a moderate progressive, not seduced by the grand visions of a totally alternative society as proposed by the Left and the Right. The latter two, he claims, make social judgments in a universal, ahistorical manner that have nothing to do with the actual fairness processes in real societies.

Just Playing is an important and welcome contribution to the literature. The book does, however, have some faults. The most salient is that crucial analytical material and discursive asides jumbled together. One must read the whole book, and make numerous references back and forth, to understand the basic argument. Moreover, the book is intended for a general audience interested in political philosophy, yet even professional economists will find the analytical parts difficult to follow.

Another problem is that Binmore uses evolutionary game theory where it suits him, but abandons it when it does not. For instance, while Binmore uses naturalism to justify the assertion that Homo sapiens is genetically programed to accept the original position, but he gives no empirical evidence that this is in fact the case. Moreover, it is implausible that evolution imprinted us with an original position orientation, but in no other way affected our moral behavior, so that the assumption of Homo economicus remains valid for bargaining purposes. Laboratory experiments reveal forms of prosocial behavior (e.g., rejecting `unfair' offers in an ultimatum game, or punishing free riders in a public goods game) that relate directly to questions of justice and fairness, yet contradict the Homo economicus model. The notion that human sociality can be explained by `enlightened self-interest,' even when accompanied by respect for the original position, will not likely survive a close study of the evidence (See my book Game Theory Evolving, Princeton University Press, 2000).

Upgrading Rawls' "Theory of Justice".......2000-06-24

In his exciting theory of the social contract Ken Binmore takes up the discussion that took place in the 70ies after the publication of John Rawls' "Theory of Justice". While he sticks to the idea of a social contract reached through voluntary agreement in the Original Position, he also considers the utilitarian critique such as Harsanyi's. But Binmore does much more than that. He translates Rawls' metaphysical idea of a reflective equilibrium into a two-stage bargaining game with flesh and bones. He stresses the tautological character of game-theoretic tools which in this context becomes an advantage. By comparison of the ethical properties of allocations reached via competitive markets and those reached through bargaining in the original position he tries to identify a demarcation line for the decentralized aggregation of individual preferences. Binmore's book is going to be a challenge to any reader interested in the problem of explaining progress in human societies.

Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution

Average customer rating:

Solid
Gene duplication, not mutation, adds most of the new information to DNA
An interesting look at evolution
Shows how genetics is evolution's worst enemy
A "Must Read"

Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution
Lee M. Spetner
Manufacturer: Judaica Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1880582244

Book Description

Physicist Dr. Lee M. Spetner's new book has biologists and geneticists across the country praising this book as one of the most serious challenges to the modern theory of evolution. "Dr. Spetner has an extraordinary ability to present complex mathematical, statistical, and biological issues in a comprehensible manner."--Rabbi Joseph Elias, The Jewish Observer "It is certainly the most rational attack on evolution that I have ever read"--Professor E. Simon, Department of Biology, Purdue University

Customer Reviews:

Solid.......2007-05-31

This book is a solid critique of Darwinism by an expert in the field. This book "Not By Chance" along with "Genetic Entropy" by JC Sanford give a reader the tools with which to destroy any darwinists in any debate.

Gene duplication, not mutation, adds most of the new information to DNA.......2007-03-08

First of all, let me set the record straight that Spetner is right: it is mathematically inconceivable that the complexity of life could arise from single point mutations or even a broad series of point mutations. There is no way. Mutations simply do not add enough information to account for all the complexities we see in genetic structure. Period.

>>-----------------
Gene Duplication
----------------- <<
What Spetner leaves out of his discussion is the simple genetic phenomenon of gene duplication. Inside of our cells are mechanisms for copying RNA and DNA. If these mechanisms had been designed by human beings, they would make perfect copies every time like modern printing presses. However, they are not. And they make mistakes *all the time*.

One important mistake they make is duplicating genes in the genetic code. While at first it might not be obvious, this duplication has the high possibility of adding NEW information to the DNA strand: along with the correctly copied gene A, you have a duplicate of gene A sitting right beside it or even somewhere else in the DNA. Here is the kicker: this second copy of gene A may not be perfect. It may be combined with some parts of gene B. This new copy has the possibility of producing a new gene all its own, gene C.

And even if the copy of A is perfect, future generations of the organism may freely modify the new copy of A (through other miscopies or mutations), because the original A is still intact to keep the organism alive. Those modifications have the potential to turn into something new and useful. And since they are starting as a copy of a functional gene, it is highly probable that they *will* turn into something useful. They are able to take the positive attributes of gene A and add to them.

>>--------------------------
Incredible Consequences
-------------------------- <<
Now it is estimated that there are at least 20,000 genes in human DNA. And there are about 6 billion people on earth. If only a meager 100 of those 20,000 genes had copies floating around in human DNA, that is still over a 600 billion gene copies out there with the potential to be modified into something useful in the next generation. And that is just in one generation of human beings (i.e. 20-50 years)! Imagine that process spread out over hundreds of millions of years.

Now you have some scope for the relative rapidity with which evolution takes place. Your cells are making odd copies of your DNA (it is evolving with every person) all the time. Every person has a different DNA strand with several modifications having evolutionary potential. That is how we are able to use DNA to identify people: every person has different DNA. Spread the process over a 100,000 years and a few thousand generations and tada! you have new races. Spread it out over 100,000,000 years and and a hundred thousand generations and tada! you have new species. Each person is a different variation of DNA.

Not only have we evolved, we are always evolving. You can't stop it. Every birth produces a new, differently evolved strand of human DNA. Every person you see is a new and different test of a modification of our genetic code.

>>------------
An Example
------------ <<
Maybe you are not convinced that simple (faulty) copies of something can produce new information, so here is an example. Lets say that we make a faulty mechanism for copying the words I've written in my review so far. Out of the letters from my review, this mechanism could produce the word "speciation" (which means "the formation of a new and distinct species in the course of evolution").

It's not hard: you just grab the 'spec' from 'species' then copy the 'iation' from the end of 'variation'. And viola! You have a new word: speciation. A word that may or may not be useful in the next copy of my review. Considering that the word "speciation" involves evolution, it very well may be useful. Or it may not be; in which case my review would die and not reproduce and reviews that were better adapted would survive.

The point is: this faulty copying produces new information. The information is not always useful (my example above may have produced words like "Nitothe", which isn't useful at all). But information like that remains dormant and unused in the cells until, by chance, it is activated and does become useful for survival. Or it is copied out or destroyed and never becomes useful. The point is, there are MANY new candidates like this to account for new information in a cell.

>>------------
Conclusion
------------ <<
This simple process refutes Spetners entire thesis that no new information is created by simple cellular processes. What Spetner does not recognize in his book is that evolution has (at *least*) 3 important elements not 2: mutation, natural selection, and *gene duplication*. That's it.

[If you would like more information about this process (as well as a nice picture), please refer to "Gene Duplication" on Wikipedia.]

An interesting look at evolution.......2007-03-05

Dr Lee Spetner is a physicist not a biologist but don't be put off by that Spetner knows his stuff and does an excellent job in this book. The first three chapters of this book are devoted to the history of evolution starting from Darwin's original conception to the current Micro/Macro Evolution model. In Chapter 4 Spetner starts his attack looking at can evolution be based on random variation. I enjoyed this section because Spetner attacked evolution differently he attacked it on the mutation level how many mutations are necessary to cause evolution and whether evolution can achieve that level of mutation. In Chapter 5 Spetner makes his second attack against evolution, information. He explains that random variations are not new information and shows that evolution can't deal with the information because it merely adds random data to the genome and random data is not information. In Chapter 6 Spetner takes on Dawkin's Blind Watchmaker. In Chapter 7 Spetner puts forward a case for non-random variation and in Chapter 8 gives us his alternative to evolution what he calls the NREH (Non Random Evolutionary Hypothesis). I did not like this NREH I believed it was inappropriate to the discussion at hand and could've been avoided. I did start to read it and then skipped over it because I wasn't interested in it. There is an appendix in this book I didn't read it but it does contain some useful supplementary information such as the structure of DNA, The Storage of Information, How Enzymes Work and a number of other useful information if your into this sort of thing.

All in all a good book on evolution that attacks evolution right at its core on the random variations and information content. I did have some problems with the book however, I did not like his coding system for Micro and Macro Evolution, I know one of them was called brady I don't know what he called the other i found it confusing. This book is vague on Micro/Macro Evolution although he does mention it he does not adequately explain it so it may help to know the difference if you look into this book. This is only a minor detail however, Spetner for the most part focuses on Neo-Darwinism I at times got the impression he was using it to refer to Micro/Macro evolution. The book is not hard to understand however, it does somewhat become obscured when it refers to Micro/Macro evolution which is mainly in chapter 3. It does help that you at least have a basic understanding of evolutionary concepts before reading this book but if you have that you shouldn't have a problem understanding this book. The Appendix is quite technical and I would avoid that if you're not an expert on it. I can't comment on NREH apart from saying I believed it was inappropriate. I do think evolutionists and creationists can both appreciate this book. It gives the creationist the real problems with evolution and it shows the evolutionist that their theory is not as airtight as they would like to think. All in all I enjoyed this book and recommended it to anyone interested in evolution.

Shows how genetics is evolution's worst enemy.......2007-02-25

Spetner does a great job in demolishing the absurd rationalizations that evolutionists use to peddle their wannabe science. His clear explanations of the complex genetic engineering of various organism show how the non-directional nature of 'natural selection' could not have driven changes. Specifically, he cites an insect's ability to become immune to DDT by showing that it's a result of information loss.

If you liked this, check out From Darwin to Hitler by Weikart, the last 3 chapters of Godless by Ann Coulter, Why Evolution is a Fraud by Tom Sutcliff, Darwin's Demise by White and Comninellis and The FACE that demonstrates the Farce of evolution by Hank Hanegraaff.

A "Must Read".......2006-11-29

Whatever your stance in the creation/evolution debate, this book is a "must read." You do need some amount of science background to get through it. Of all the books relating to this topic that I have read (and they have been many), this book is my favorite. This is one of those books that was impossible for me to put down---I wanted to just read on and on. Spetner does an outstanding job and, in my opinion, deals a death-blow to evolution. Quite frankly, I believe that if Darwin could read this book today, that he would agree that his theory just does not hold water in light of what is currently known about mutations and molecular biology. After my sons have completed at least high school biology and chemistry, I will work through this book with them as a supplement to their science education. I am a science teacher (currently homeschooling) and would love to see this book receive the wide circulation that it deserves.

Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Average customer rating:

A brand new idea about human origins
this book is out of date
new horizons for any cognitive science reader
A really swell read....
Earnest, Learned and Valiant Effort

Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition
Merlin Donald
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674644840

Customer Reviews:

A brand new idea about human origins.......2006-06-18

This is a book that will forever change your view of what it means to be a human being. It is a work of enormous scope, from the minutiae of neurophysiology to archaeology and anthropology to the curriculum of mediaeval schools and modern systems theory, and everywhere closely researched with evidence weighed with care and insight.
The argument is broadly this: our evolutionary cousins, the apes, have brains which enable them to represent to themselves and remember "episodes" or events, something which their evolutionary predecessors either do not have or have only in a limited form.
Homo erectus, the evolutionary link between us and the apes, extended this ability to perceive events, into "mimesis", a capacity to reproduce events they have perceived by use of their own body. Donald shows how this ability, which involves no modifications of the body and relatively modest changes in the brain, allows for the voluntary representation and communication of events of the past and emotions not actually felt concerning things not actually present, a foundation for the later development of symbolic action. Homo erectus dominated the hominid world for a million years, adapting themselves to this "mimetic" culture. According to Donald, mimetic representation remains with us as a vestige of our homo erectus ancestry, as a fully functioning, underlying mode of representation and intelligence.
Homo sapiens in turn developed this ability into speech, with a radical adaption which occurred about 500,000 years ago. According to Donald, homo sapiens had a "mythic" culture hinged around the ability to tell stories, and this ability provided a means to make sense of the world and create a shared understanding of the world. This mythic culture survives to this day, constituting a crucial mode of understanding the world.
Modern human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, emerged only about 50,000 years ago with a rapid accumulation of a myriad of forms of cultural artefacts, culminating in the beginning of writing about 8,000 years ago. This led to a "theoretic" culture for which symbols held in material forms outside the body, play an essential role. According to Donald, human beings have evolved by biological adaptation to the culture it created and lived in and was crucial to its survival strategy.
There is a lot of maybe, perhaps, possibly and if in this work, but the best books open research programs rather than completing them, and Donald has certainly done this. The basic framework is very sound and argued convincingly but his suggestion opens up a plethora of questions begging for investigation.
In particular, the idea of several (episodic, mimetic and linguistics) modes of representation coexisting in consciousness has vast ramifications.

this book is out of date.......2005-11-07

The book is 17 years out of date.

Donald writes, ""Broca's region" and "Wernicke's region" are convenient fictions, the truth being that aphasia can be caused by wide variety of legions that spare these areas, while occasionally the complete loss of these areas will spare language function altogether, provided the adjacent white matter and basal ganglia are not damaged. The implication is that higher-level integration appears to be fluid and plastic in its underlying anatomy, and the anatomy looks modular through out."

The current consensus refutes this position.

new horizons for any cognitive science reader.......2003-02-18

I am an oby-gyn specialist and readings of cognitive studies is one of my interests. Of course I prefer superficial writings and any book becomes out of touch and rejected as soon as it involves deeper issues. Paradoxically some rare books are easy to digest, yet exceedingly succesfull at promising new ways for capturing a glimpse. This work is such an attractive one. If consciousness will reveal its secrets someday, I feel that the key is evolutionary approaches and this master-piece of Donald is one of the bests in its era.

A really swell read...........2001-01-24

This is a fun book to read-- which is something for a book that credibly spreads across a number of disciplines and through some pretty dense stuff....

Donald is a credible writer and has a style that is simultaneously engaging without losing academic credibility. After opening up with a couple of chapters dealing with a review of literature stemming from before Darwin, he moves into an examination of archaeology, anthropology, and neurology trying to trace how the human mind came to function as it does (if you see it as special... or not....)

He traces through most of history. It is a broad, well-constucted swoop but one of which I still have not passed my final judgement. Perhaps it will take a couple of reads before I get to that point. What I am certain of is that this book, secondary to Julian Jaynes "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" made me THINK more about how we think than any other book I have come across.

I wholeheartedly recommend for you to buy this book if you have stumbled across this page....

Earnest, Learned and Valiant Effort.......2000-05-18

Although I didn't finish this book altogether convinced (nor altogether unconvinced) of his schema for human cognitive evolution, I was nonetheless very pleased and very grateful for Merlin Donald's clear and thorough review of the facts. Donald carefully sorts through the wealth of anthropological, paleontological, physiological, linguistic, and, most intriguingly, cognitive-psychological data, to separate the real clues from the red herrings. He expertly demonstrates the complexity and nuances of the evidence, while at the same time building his outline of a theory of the emergence of human consciousness. While I found this theory somewhat hazy and incomplete, particularly with respect to the "mimetic" stage he posits for H. erectus, it is quite acceptable in the spirit in which it is given: a tentative suggestion of what a plausible origins scenario must look like. From this perspective, his thoughts are most valuable, and by necessity provoke the reader to ruminate on the bewildering array of issues the author navigates so expertly. Merlin Donald does not adopt the strident, advocative tone that so many big-picture human evolution theorists do--rather, he lets the steady buildup of evidence and counter-evidence show you how he arrived at his ideas. The book is a dated, but still glittering, treasure of references and findings in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and animal and human cognition--I have used it quite a few times simply to remind myself--and others--of the strange but true, and of how things don't always conform to the wished-for pattern. For instance, Donald's wonderful and almost touching account of "Brother John", a paroxysmal aphasic, is a perfect rejoinder to anyone who equates "language" with "intelligence".

The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory: and Other Papers on the History of Economic Thought

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The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory: and Other Papers on the History of Economic Thought
Lionel Robbins
Manufacturer: Aldine Transaction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Theory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0202309193

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