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In many ways, the 20th century has been the Age of Physics.
Out of Control is an accessible and entertaining explanation of why the coming years will probably be the Age of Biology -- particularly evolution and ethology -- and what this will mean to most every aspect of our society. Kelly is an enthusiastic and well-informed guide who explains the promises and implications of this rapidly evolving revolution very well.
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This Book Is Out of Control.......2007-03-19
I must admit that I'm a little ticked at spending a considerable amount of time reading a 500 page book with too many ideas and lack of focus. The editing left a lot to be desired. Throughout the book, the author asserts that if dumb, simple things (e.g. a swarm of bees) continuously communicate with each other they will eventually become capable of performing highly complex tasks not feasible by the will of intelligent beings. Yet, this point is expressed in such a complex manner that it makes one wonder why the author didn't follow his philosophy by dumbing down his arguments and letting the plentiful explain the more difficult concepts.
The main premise of the book is the idea of intelligent beings, in this case humans, giving up control of their creations, which are machines, and letting them "adapt on their own, evolve in their own direction, and grow without human oversight."
There are some intriguing ideas such as: No sustaining ecosystem is in equilibrium or completely "in control". Some chaotic or "out of control" events are required for complex systems to function. For example, the earth's atmosphere is made up of 20% oxygen. This oxygen content is just enough to maintain viable ecosystems without burning up the earth from fires.
"Out of Control" was written in 1994, and 14 years later global warming is a hot button. What happened to the Kelly's grand ideas of recycling (see example of Danish companies recycling each others' waste somewhere in the book)? How much closer are we to eco-friendly intelligent homes and personal belongings? Instead of moving to cheap renewable energy sources, we are experiencing the use of fossil fuels like never before with the fast growing economies of China and India. Crucial counteracting forces seemed to have been completely ignored by the author in projecting a sea of changes in how humans behave. Solar energy will never succeed as a viable energy source unless Big Oil has a monopoly over the sun. Digital cash has been a failure because its success would've destroyed the profits of Visa/Mastercard.
The author is a proponent of the idea of passing down learned behavior innately to offsprings, i.e. through genes. For example, experiments cited from one scientist proved evolution with learned behavior passed down to offsprings is superior to natural evolution. In this instance the author ignored the prospect of passing down negative and undesirable learned behavior that is criminal in nature for example. It's best that all offsprings are created much like computers, and most behavior is learned much like software. It is precisely individuality that facilitates variability, the hallmark of evolution. The author himself even argues for systems thriving at the edge of chaos; systems flexible enough to adapt to the changing environment, yet not rigid enough to become unadaptable. Passing down learned behavior to offsprings would undoubtedly create a more rigid system. Besides, most people already harbor the ill effects of bad parenting. The last thing they need is to acquire this cr*p at conception.
At the end of the book, Mr. Kelly mentions "The Nine Laws of God". One law in particular stood out: "Grow by chunking" which states "The only way to make a complex system that works is to begin with a simple system that works. Attempts to instantly install highly complex organization-such as intelligence or a market economy-without growing it, inevitably lead to failure..... Time is needed to let each part test itself against all the others...." The failure to observe this law has been aptly demonstrated in the U.S. effort to build democracy in Iraq, and to a lesser degree the pressure exerted on Russia by the west to quickly move to a market economy following the collapse of communism.
Inspite of all the criticism, I'm glad I read this book. The ideas could have been expressed in 200 pages fewer and more coherently. Pick up a copy and fasten your seat belt. You will be riding this one for a while.
Perhaps the most important book of the 90s.......2006-08-24
Why are the three most powerful forces in our world--evolution, democracy and capitalism--so controversial? Hundreds (in the case of democracy, thousands) of years after they were first understood, we still can't quite believe these three phenomena work. Socialist Europe resists capitalism, the religious right in America questions evolution and the Middle East makes a mockery of democracy. When you think about it, it's easy to understand why: all three are radically counterintuitive. "One person, one vote?" What if they vote wrong?
But that's the problem--we're thinking about it. Our brains aren't wired to understand the wisdom of the crowd. Evolution, democracy and capitalism don't work at the anecdotal level of personal experience, the level at which our story-driven synapses are built to engage. Instead, they're statistical, operating in the realm of collective probability. They're not right--they're "righter". They're not predictable and controllable--they're inherently out of control. That's scary and unsettling, but also hugely important to understand in a world of increasing complexity and diminishing institutional power (mainstream media: meet blogs; military: meet insurgency).
Fortunately, this book that makes sense of all of this. Out of Control was first published in 1994, well before its time, but it's one of those rare books that sells better each year it gets older. That's because Kelly recognized that the messy markets of natural selection, enlightened self-interest and invisible hands all anticipated the Internet and the delights of watching peer-to-peer cacophony create the greatest oracle the world has ever seen. Some of the examples may be a bit dated a dozen years later, but the message has only become more true: "There is no central keeper of knowledge in a network, only curators of particular views," he writes. The emergent mob wisdom of the blogosphere and Wikipedia were unimaginable then, but somehow Kelly imagined them all the same. This may be the smartest book of the past decade.
Cyberpunk Fact.......2006-08-05
The first half of the book is simply as good as it gets. Each Kelly pronouncement reads like a mantra from on high. The second half of the book is merely brilliant, but Mr. Kelly gives you a pretty good run for your money at 500 pages. There's only a couple of people even close to Kevin Kelly in the futuristic field, Ray Kurzweil, Howard Bloom, and Thomas L. Friedman. Alvin Toffler may have pioneered in a field that H.G. Wells started, but the new mavens like Robert D. Kaplan, Mike Davis, and Kevin Kelly, achieve levels of literacy as beautiful as a Dali. There are about ten must-read human futures, "Out of Control" is one of them.
Review for Out of Control.......2006-05-23
Kevin Kelly was the executive editor at Wired, and his own magazine had a negative review. It describes distributed computing systems and concommitant communication problems in a new light, vastly expanding the scope of otherwise mundane academic articles on the topic. Kelly defines the rules of complex system behavior that simultaneously apply to traditional distributed computing, to markets, to a flock of birds or a bee hive. This book is tedious but worth a read.
Original thinking the value of which I really do not have the tools to judge .......2006-05-14
This is Kevin Kelly's own summary of his bottom- line conclusions.
" As we make our machines and institutions more complex, we have to make them more biological in order to manage them.
The most potent force in technology will be artificial evolution. We are already evolving software and drugs instead of engineering them.
Organic life is the ultimate technology, and all technology will improve towards biology.
The main thing computers are good for is creating little worlds so that we can try out the Great Questions. Online communities let us ask the question "what is a democracy; what do you need for it?" by trying to wire a democracy up, and re-wire it if it doesn't work. Virtual reality lets us ask "what is reality?" by trying to synthesize it. And computers give us room to ask "what is life?" by providing a universe in which to create computer viruses and artificial creatures of increasing complexity. Philosophers sitting in academies used to ask the Great Questions; now they are asked by experimentalists creating worlds.
As we shape technology, it shapes us. We are connecting everything to everything, and so our entire culture is migrating to a "network culture" and a new network economics.
In order to harvest the power of organic machines, we have to instill in them guidelines and self-governance, and relinquish some of our total control."
This is the kind of book I find extremely difficult to know how to read. I just do not have the proper scientific- technical background to evaluate the kinds of claims which are being made here. And this when I am naturally skeptical about books which claim to have a sure general understanding of the shape of the human future.
My skepticism also relates to the meaning of this kind of 'evolution' for the lives of individual human beings, and for society as a whole. Is the suggestion that we are on the verge of some vast transcending or de- humanizing of humanity, some creation of an 'organic collective mechanical consciousness' which will somehow 'direct' or guides society as a whole.?
If so , once again, what does this say about our own individual freedom and identity?
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The best treatment I have yet encountered about how order emerges naturally -- and possibly even necessarily -- out of chaos. Profoundly important, and considerably more informed than better-known pop-science treatments of chaos theory. Very highly recommended.
Book Description
A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos. We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe. Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life.
Customer Reviews:
At home in the universe, A New Proposal..........2007-04-05
In this book, Stuart Koaffman opens new doors to us. Through the theory of the chaos, proportions fractals and their networks boulinas, give an interesting speculation us on the origin of the life, the complex systems and the societies. It is hour to be on the awares and to try to focus to us in new horizons. This book took to him of the hand by these new horizons. It is hour to know our house in the universe...
Proposals to Unanswered Questions.......2006-09-16
Stuart Kaufman's At Home in the Universe is a lay redaction his scientific hypotheses from his Origins of Order, a rich, fascinating, sophisticated, and complementary set of hypotheses added to Darwin's theories of evolution. For the moment, at least, they are the promising fruit of speculative or theoretical biological hypotheses (with physics, chemistry, geology, paleontology, mathematics, game theory, and economics thrown in), but they go a long way to filling in many of the gaps that strict Darwinists seem content to ignore. And some of his hypotheses, he readily admits, are heretical.
One of the obvious problems, if not primary one, that Kaufman sets to answer, Is how can natural selection work, culling the fittest to survive, without something to act on? In other words, natural selection operates on the already existent (i.e., regressive engineering), not in the formation of the entity itself. Another problem is that 4 billion years, long as that is, is still not sufficient time for natural selection to have acted through a totally random, step-by-step process in determining today's survivors. Even 100 billion years would not be enough. Another problem is how could so many species have come into existence and failed to survive (99.9%), leaving a mere 100 million for the present, in the span of a mere 4 billion years (mathematically impossible on Darwin's theories alone).
The central theme of Kaufman's work is Self-organized Criticality, a scientific twist on the notion of irreducible complexity (from the Discovery Institute's lexicon, no less), where a minimal degree of inherent complexity in a subcritical-supercritical phase transition is what spontaneously orders the animate world and generates and sustains life in accord with other, as yet, unknown, but implicit laws. From the moment that a sufficiently critical diversity of molecules reached the ideal phase transition, life itself was "spontaneously generated" as inevitable, not by accident. Once life appeared, the acts of natural selection, adaptation, coevolution, evolution of coevolution, cellular, morphological, and physiological differentiation, ontogeny, niches, populations, stable cum-chaotic dynamics, etc., could operate, but in addition to forces beyond natural selection. And while speculative, apparently many scientists share Kaufman's intuitions, inferences, and insights.
But the "other" force or forces is not mystical, much less divine, even if they may be truly awesome. Rather, it is in the nature of the universe, and more particularly in our evolving earth, that these implicit laws work in tandem with Darwin's laws. At this point, these laws are posited from the empirical knowledge we do have, but have not yet demonstrated in the scientific manner to make them even hypotheses. But Kaufman's speculative biology is not a whimsical or arbitrary metaphysics, but logical inferences based on laws and facts already in place. Having done the easy work (thinking the notions of what these other general laws of nature must be like), now science must work in earnest to confirm or reject his speculative hypotheses.
The key word and concept throughout this humorous, heady, and exacting exposition is "complexity" and within the manifold complexities of lives, environments, and mutually intersecting dynamics is a spontaneous order that arises "for free" that in turn sustains stable and steady systems just at the subcritical-supercrticial phase transition (e.g., horizon, or "edge of chaos"). Another key word and concept is "dynamic." Steady-state and homeostasis are often thought of as a static plateau, but that is mistaken, as such states are actually in a fluctuating dynamic at the phase transition between equilibrium (death) and disequilibrium (disorder). Indeed, on many different levels, living organisms are born, dwell, and die precisely at this phase transition between the subcritical (stasis, moribund) and supercritical (chaotic, disordered) states. And the key thesis is that order ("for free") is embedded in the delicate balancing act precisely at this phase transition.
Kaufman extrapolates some of these implicit biological laws and applies them to human cultural and technological advancement. The "fit" is remarkably uncanny, helping us to understand some of the dynamics of technological improvements (and diminishing returns), innovation, extinction, and spontaneity of the economy. Perhaps the most salient features are the concepts of "dynamic" and "spontaneous."
Moreover, if an analogy can be drawn from the biosphere and ecology to the social and political realms, the overwhelming preponderance of biological evidence screams complexity, diversity, and interdependence of organisms and their environments, which arise spontaneously and reciprocally to each other, in a constant dynamic that is vibrant, active, and always on the threshold of "chaos," but retains some stability through change. It is only those social and political forms that are "adaptive" that are socially and politically the "fittest," and democracy and market economies are obviously the most adaptive mechanisms to adapt to changing human needs.
Frederick Hayek addressed himself to these very issues over 50 years ago, and called the market economy and democracies "spontaneous" associations, in contradistinction to "planned" economies and governments. The former "adapt" to changing environments and circumstances, while the latter lack flexibility, and thus do not easily yield to adaptive mechanisms. "Planned" economies attempt to calculate rationally human desires, motivations, and needs in either an abstract or a priori fashion, then calculate the mode of production, the degree, and whether to accommodate, as if some "Absolute Human Mind" could anticipate all contingencies and changes by a simple mathematical formula. The problem is that bureaucrats are notoriously theory-laden and too calculating to include, much less advance, diversity (think Medicare Part D for "planned" absurdity). In practice, socialisms impede innovation and stifle ingenuity. With no means of adaptation, there is no "fittest," much less any mechanism to adapt to the actual dynamics of the world.
Communism's planned economy is an extreme case of an irrational calculus asserting what the government will allow, applying the lowest-common denominator as a criterion of sufficiency. We all know of the U.S.S.R.'s food lines, limited products, forced housing, inferior merchandise, and minimal labor investment. But even weaker forms of the rational calculus, such as socialism, does not do much better. At least their democracies allow policies to change, even if it becomes years for government to adapt to the new exigencies. Even the most socialized societies have "capitalist" outlets, to provide some barometer of social wants and meeting them. Social insurance makes sense on many fronts, but social or state "planning" of economics has rotted state and worker. Kaufman's biological analogies explain why.
Postscript: Kaufman's book is a provocative, challenging, and fascinating (sometime heady) read. Even if all of his hypotheses in the abstract are found to be untrue, at least he captures the reader's imagination, and asks the questions that most of us non-dogmatic Darwinians have raised for some time. In a time when the "easy" and "orthodox" are all too convenient for slipping under the rug, Kaufman's questions (and suggested answers) go the the very nexus of the difficulties. His suggested answers are at once perhaps too simple, on the other hand, perhaps too complex. What is refreshing, above all, is that he's not afraid to ask, and even less fearful of suggesting solutions. Thank gawd for the Sante Fe Institute, where brave and curious minds still ask questions.
Fascinating Science Applicable to Evolution and Business.......2006-05-17
Stuart brings the science of complexity and complex adaptive systems to a broad range of topics from evolution to business to learning curves. The book is masterly written to allow you to skim over the formulas without lossing the excitement or to dig into the technology to understand its broad application.
A fascinating look at self-organization.......2005-01-18
We see a great deal of order in living systems. Where does this order come from? Is it entirely from natural selection? The author says no. He explains that much of the order we see in the world is spontaneous, such as in the symmetry of snowflakes, and that much of the order needed for the origination of life and in living organisms is of this spontaneous nature.
Kauffman is making a non-trivial point here, as the extent to which spontaneous order is more important than selected order is not entirely obvious. While a snowflake is indeed an example of a system that is highly ordered as it gets synthesized, that's not true of, say, a solar system, in which short-lived bodies quickly depart the scene in favor of long-lived ones. It's clearly significant that disordered entities tend to be shorter-lived and unable to replicate.
The author then addresses theories of the origin of life. Could it have started with RNA? After all, replicating RNA could then produce the needed proteins. Kauffman says no. The amino acid chains one would need would be too long to replicate accurately enough (the "error catastrophe"). I tend to agree. Besides, RNA is awfully fragile (DNA is not fragile). And once one hypothesizes that RNA has a template to keep it safe, one's theory is that templates came first.
Of course, the "error catastrophe" is devastating if the minimum complexity of a living cell is rather large. Kauffman argues that this minimum complexity is indeed large, and that it is no accident that there are hundreds of genes in pleuromona, perhaps the simplest free-living (non-virus) organism.
Spontaneous order also refutes the argument of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life could not have arisen on Earth because the chance of creating the 2000 functioning enzymes would be too small: 1 in 10 to the 40,000. Well, given that life does exist here, the Hoyle argument is almost certainly wrong anyway (with a chance that small, the odds would be overwhelmingly small for life to arise anywhere, ever, so the chance that the argument is wrong must be huge, since a correct argument might then give a much higher probability for life to appear).
The author then asks how we get the large polymers we need. After all, life is basically autocatalysis (that's what I was taught in the 1960s, and that's what Kauffman says as well). How does this big autocatalytic set get into gear? The author makes an analogy to putting connectors between random pairs of entities. At first the length of a connected chain will be small. But once the number of connections is about half the number of entities, the longest chain quickly becomes almost as large as the number of entities. That raises the question of how all these entities can interact, but Kaufmann says that having reactions on a substrate, effectively reducing the region to two dimensions, helps. So does having less water around.
We then get to the question of homeostasis. That requires plenty of order. Is there a way to get that order "for free?" The author says there is, and here is where he makes his most dramatic point. He points out that a network with 100,000 entities (call them "light bulbs") with two states each, has 10 to the 30,000 possible states. One might expect such a network to cycle through the square root of the number of states, or 10 to the 15,000. But it actually tends to cycle through the square root of the number of binary variables, which is only the square root of 100,000 or about 317. That is a huge amount of "order for free!" And it argues strongly for life's origination to be unsurprising. As Kauffman puts it, this changes life on Earth from being "We, the improbable," to "We the expected."
There's plenty more in this fine book. The author discusses order in ontogeny. And he has a chapter on the relationship between the diversity of species in an ecosystem and the diversity of organic molecules added from outside. And there's also plenty of material on "fitness landscapes."
One question that arises in this book is statistical: how long does a species tend to last? That has implications for the question of how long humans will last. It may not be that long. But that doesn't bother me, as long as we're replaced with something better. After all, I'm for progress!
Fantastic and enlightening.......2004-03-21
This particular book is a fantastic revelation and study of the boundary between order and chaos as it applies to the evolution of life, culture, technology and anything else in the universe. Its goal is to seek a universal law regarding the emergence of order in what we've traditionally considered unordered or random sets of fundamental stuff. For example, one of the observations that it makes is that evolution as Darwin revealed it is by itself not a sufficient explanation (scientifically) for why and how creatures like us could be here at all. In other words, natural selection is not sufficient to accomplish what life has accomplished in this world of ours. It needed the help of a very important other "force"... the life force, I might call it, and to which I've alluded many times in many forms through my writings. It's that special something about the nature of the universe that brings about the cooperation of systems, the autocatalytic closure which makes "hanging together" and "existing" some sort of "goal" deeply encoded in the nature of it all. You might be able to see how I might identify these ideas very closely with that term "lifetoward". What goal-oriented force brought life to be and continues to make life strive for ever more order and complexity? This book answers I think very well with: it's not a force, per se, but rather a fundamental aspect of the basic nature of the universe. To quote the book, "We the expected." We as living beings belong here and are an integral part of an incredibly awe inspiring process of creation of meaning and order in a world aching to give birth to it. The book closes with a nice summary, which much like a message I had posted to the lifetoward@yahoogroups.com list some time ago, extols the development of a new and enlightened faith, based on a realization of the wonder of the way the universe deeply is and how we are in it.
In terms of the meaning and importance of this book, I would recommend it to everyone. However, I will warn you that it may be a significant challenge to read. It calls on a deeply considered understanding of a variety of disciplines, including most notably evolutionary biology, organic chemistry, mathematics, anthropology, and economics. It proceeds with an assumption that the reader has realized or can quickly recognize the common ground between these different areas of study. It uses a lot of mathematical models and visualizations of 2, 3 and hyperdimensional spaces to discuss the nature of this common law and its emergence in the world around us.
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- Probably the only real design guide for cultural evolution
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Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View (Contemporary Systems Thinking)
Bela H. Banathy
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Book Description
Based on a comprehensive review of human and societal evolution the book develops an approach to conscious, self-guided evolution.
In the course of the evolutionary journey of our species, there have been three seminal events. The first happened some seven million yeas ago, when our humanoid ancestors entered on the evolutionary scene. Their journey toward the second crucial event lasted over six million years when - as the greatest event of our evolutionary history -
homo sapiens sapiens, started the revolutionary process of cultural evolution. Today, we have arrived at the threshold of the third major event, `the revolution of conscious evolution,' when it becomes our responsibility to enter into the evolutionary design space and guide the evolutionary journey of our species.
The book tells the story of the first six million years of the journey in just enough detail to understand how evolution had worked in times when it was primarily biological, driven by natural selection. With the human revolution some fifty thousand years ago, with the emergence of self-reflective consciousness, the evolutionary process transformed from biological into cultural. From this point on, the book follows the journey with detailed attention, in order to learn how cultural evolution works. The book is organized in three parts. Part One commences with an exposition of a brief history of the evolutionary idea through time with a focus on a review of the science of general evolution and specifically social and societal evolution. Next, the book unfolds the `evolutionary story' of our species from the time when the first humanoids entered the evolutionary scene to our current era. Part Two develops a systems view of evolution, explores the ways and means of how evolution works, characterizes evolutionary consciousness and develops the idea of conscious evolution. Part Three builds upon the knowledge developed in the first two parts and sets forth the key conditions of conscious, self-guided evolution, elaborating the core condition, which is the acquisition of evolutionary competence through evolutionary learning. The focus of this part is on an approach to the design of evolutionary guidance systems that our families, neighborhoods, communities, organizations, social and societal systems can use to design the future they aspire to attain.
The work is set aside from other statements in three important ways. It provides: (1) a comprehensive review of how evolution has worked with a focus on socio-cultural evolution, (2) an explanation of evolutionary consciousness and the conditions of engaging in conscious evolution, and (3) most significantly, it develops a detailed approach and a methodology to the design of evolutionary guidance systems.
Customer Reviews:
Probably the only real design guide for cultural evolution.......2001-05-22
Dr. Banathy has written what is probably the only work in existence on an evolutionary epistemology. He contends that humanity needs to take charge of its own cultural evolution, and to do that requires co-creative design of our future. His book provides powerful tools for accomplishing this.
The first part of the book takes the reader through the human evolution from a systems perspective. The latter half focuses on the methods for engaging in collective, participative design creating an evolutionary guidance system that can carry us forward. This work builds on Dr. Banathy's classic previous work on social systems design, "Designing Social Systems in a Changing World."
In the latter half of the book, the reader is taken through the design process of creating an evolutionary guidance system. This process begins with the establishment of common ground and continues through the determination of the functions and components of systems that can learn and grow toward and ideal future. The book talks about both the process and dynamics of design, highlighting that social systems design is both an iterative and a complex process of movement forward and recursive revision to what has been done. We cannot know the end state, but we can move toward our best vision of it.
The unique and intriguing aspect of Dr. Banathy's work in general, and this work in particular, is the emphasis on the process of social systems design. No prescribed future is proposed; rather, Dr. Banathy seeks to provide the methodological tools for humanity to create a better future. In this sense, the work does not try to advocate any other values than that people must take charge of their future and that everyone should be involved in the design of the social systems in which they will inhabit. It is thus, in a sense, a work about how to be a responsible citizen in the modern age.
It is a book about democracy, but not about government. Rather it is a book about focused, meaningful, and productive public dialogue, both generative and strategic. As a metaphor, Dr. Banathy reminds us of the citizen democracies of ancient Greece, where public issues could be debated in full view.
This book is an essential manual for people who are serious about social change, because the book talks about how to engage a large system in meaningful dialogue. And it is only through meaningful dialogue that the system will be change. Despite the plethora of proposals about what our future should be, it is impossible to sit back and determine it from an armchair. Rather, as Dr. Banathy describes, we must engage together and let that future emerge through our genuine, focused, and open dialogue.
Book Description
Sociologists have long believed that psychology alone can't explain what happens when people work together in complex modern societies. In contrast, most psychologists and economists believe that we can explain much about social life with an accurate theory of how individuals make choices and act on them. R. Keith Sawyer argues, however, that societies are complex dynamical systems, and that the best way to resolve these debates is by developing the concept of emergence, paying attention to multiple levels of analysis--individuals, interactions, and groups--with a dynamic focus on how social group phenomena emerge from communication processes among individual members.
Customer Reviews:
Useful Contribution to Complex Systems Theory.......2007-07-08
Human society is a prime candidate for analysis as a complex dynamical system, since societies consist in large numbers of very similar agents engaged in overlapping and interdependent interactions. Despite the power of methodologically individualist approaches in understanding human behavior, they cannot go beyond a certain point, because complex dynamical systems have emergent properties that govern the joint behavior of the individuals who constitute society. Such emergent properties cannot be properly modeled within the confines of the existing behavioral disciplines, because some disciplines (e.g., economics) are thoroughly committed to methodological individualism, and others (e.g., sociology) do not study the precise mechanisms whereby emergent properties result from the interaction of micro-level agents. Sawyer's book focuses on the requirements for a consistent approach to emergent social properties.
Sawyer argues that the agent-based modeling and complexity techniques now used form a "third wave" of social systems theory, the first being Talcott Parsons' structural-functionalism, and the second being Bertalanffy' work general systems theory. Sawyer's personal emphasis is on the role of communication in constituting complex group intentionality.
The book does a nice job of outline the history of the concept of emergence in social theory, arguing that Durkheim's work is best understood as a systematic alternative to methodological individualism. Much of the analysis difficult to deal with because it depends on a high level of abstraction from analytical and behavioral models, so lacks focus. It is difficult to have much patience with transcendental realism, critical realism, and other philosophical and sociological doctrines that pontificate on the abstract nature of social systems.
Sawyer stresses the importance of agent-based modeling of complex dynamical systems. This stress is well-founded, but the book's emphasis on the level of emergent properties leads to a slighting of the analytical modeling of human individuals. This is, of course, typical of a sociological approach to social theory, but it belies the author's earlier insistence on the cross-disciplinary nature of the task of explaining social emergence. There is neither biology nor economics here, and the analysis suffers as a result. It is incorrect to believe that a groups of computer scientists can model human communication, for instance, without knowing the empirical data on the social role of communication, the evolutionary dynamics of human language, and the conditions under which communication is veridical. In particular, it is incorrect to think one can understand communication without problematizing the conditions under which people can assume that message are truthful.
Despite erring on the side of slighting the micro components of society---the individuals who compose society in their strategic and communicative interactions---this is a valuable contribution for those interested in developing social theory beyond methodological individualism
Overview of Complex Social Systems.......2007-01-03
This book is a great overview of the state of understanding and research in and around complex social systems. I found this a good foundation for deeper digging, particularly understanding what happens in some of the social networks on the web as they scale. As it is academic in nature (although rather accessible for non-accademics) it is well footnoted and annotated, making it easy to dig deeper on a variety of subjects.
Book Description
Designed for a one-semester introductory course in Animal Behavior. Animal behavior is a broad discipline with investigators and contributions from diverse perspectives, including anthropology, comparative psychology, ecology, ethology, physiology, and zoology. The authors goal in this textbook is to use evolutionary principles as a unifying theme to provide students exposure to a number of approaches to the field of animal behavior. They also demonstrate that the varied perspectives used to study behavior are complementary and often integrated; they are not mutually exclusive. The subtitle, “Mechanisms, Ecology, and Evolution,” reflects the broad themes that dominate the book.
Customer Reviews:
The best of the current texts available.......1999-09-28
I have used this as a text and have found it to be the best available. It is well written and is easily understood by undergraduate students, without talking down to them. Its incorporation of ecology and evolution is particularly important and useful. The examples work well in giving a complete picture. The practical emphasis on how behaviors are studied and measured helps to interest students in research and equip them to evaluate new information.
Book Description
An evolution biologist's story of planet Earth and its people from origins to a sustainable future. Past patterns of biological evolution offers clues to the natural process of globalization.
Customer Reviews:
Old science, new view.......2007-09-02
This book offers a new interpretation of what is life and how to interpret evolution. A must read for thinking people.
A Must Read!.......2007-05-22
In Earthdance, Elisabet Sahtouris has drawn together some of the best thinking about Earth as a living organism and presented it in terms that both inform the newcomer and add to the knowledge of the experienced student of evolution. Challenging the popular Darwinian concepts of how evolution takes place, Sahtouris leads her reader to understand how limited and dangerous Darwin's ideas can be in the wrong hands and minds. The "survivial of the fittest" mentality, she reminds us, can lead to deliberate acts of violence by one people against another in the name of "fitness." In Sahtouris' understanding of the evolutionary process, life takes on a new dimension, based in a reverence for all life. Spirituality is now a given, though "religion" takes its lumps. Traditional religious forms are seen as extensions of Darwinism, again propogating survival of one idea over another rather than the inclusion of all people in a search for the deeper spiritual meaning of how cration comes together out of the spiritual consciousness of all beings. Sahtouris points toward the Vedic religions as a way to understand the nature of our world as a living organism. The Buddhist concepts of the movement of life from one dimension of life to another fits beautifully within the "dance." She points to the view of Earth from space as a key element in the understanding of the unity of all life and being. Her book is another vital look from our space as a way to see the holiness of all life.
Elegant, poetic, and visionary as well as excellent science........2001-03-31
If I believed in reincarnation, I would think that Elisabet Sahtouris was Homer in a previous life. She writes with the grand sweep and musical throb of an epic poet and, as she says in her introduction to this new edition of EarthDance, she honed her writing skills as well as gestated her ideas on a "small pine-forested Greek island." While EarthDance is grounded in a thorough knowledge of Sahtouris' own field of evolutionary biology and a wide-ranging grasp of both science and philosophy, it also draws deeply on her personal experience of having lived among indigenous peoples and gained a profound respect for the traditional science of their cultures.
EarthDance prophetically represents the new and rapidly expanding Post-Darwinian evolutionary biology. Sahtouris explains how, in cycle after cycle, the living entities or "holons" in the realm of Gaia have merged, through negotiation and symbiosis rather than ruthless competition, in a constantly self-creating and re-creating "holarchy" of living systems.
Death even plays a crucial role in this ongoing dance of life. "Every dancer knows," says Sahtouris, "that each dancer can only perform one step at a time; that old steps must be abandoned so that the dancer's body will be free to perform new ones, which may then repeat or change the pattern of old steps." However, it is life, not death, which attracts the passion and vision of the author. She challenges the human species to live as the new biology now recognizes life has evolved, cooperatively and symbiotically rather than "red in tooth and claw." Unlike Edmund O. Wilson or Richard Dawkins, she does not have to explain love and altruism as a "strategy" to gain selfish ends but celebrates them as the very heart of evolution.
The impact of a massive boloid 65 million years ago wiped out all the big dinosaurs. Barring another such catastrophe, it seems likely that the human species is the best candidate for bringing about its own extinction unless, as Sahtouris emphasizes, we grow up as humans and "take the responsibility for using our freedom in healthful ways, to help rebalance the great ongoing dance of Gaian creation and to develop harmonious new patterns within it." Perhaps the most remarkable thing about EarthDance is the way Sahtouris extends her grasp of cosmic, biological, and social evolution into more than simply a vision but a program for restructuring the economic and political forces of our human world from the ground up rather than the top down. With extraordinary insight she sees this restructuring as beginning with the endogenous creativity of the World Wide Web as well as the thousands upon thousands of new "cells" of human creative communion that are springing up all over the world. In one more stage of autopoesis, "self-creation," she notes how all these individuals and groups come together in conferences and seminars to share their insights, pool their talents, and barter their resources. EarthDance is Elisabet Sahtouris' invitation to the entire human species to join the cosmic dance that alone can instill new life into the planetary ballroom we call Earth.
One final observation: Sahtouris does not simply represent the new post-Darwinian biology but is one of the leaders in the new twenty-first century science. In Biology Revisioned, a book he co-authored with Sahtouris, the late Willis Harman called the new science "Wholeness Science" as contrasted with the old "Separateness Science." When you read EarthDance, you are reading "Wholeness Science" in its most elegant, poetic and visionary expression.
a great book on living systems.......2001-02-01
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Certainly there is no shortage of books describing what the human race is doing to itself and the other organisms that inhabit our planet. It can be depressing reading most of the time. This book, however, managed to put all of this into context, and surprisingly, made me feel that all is as it should be in the grand scheme. It is a wonderful synthesis of past and present scientific revelations, intuition, and even religion. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
All the Earth and All Its Moving Parts.......2001-01-25
When I was in college the standard joke was that one of the final exam questions would be: construct a model of the universe with all things included with all their interactions. Elisabet Sahtouris comes about as close to doing that as anybody can. And she does it with language most people can understand. This book was so captivating I devoted an entire weekend to reading it.
Starting with the Gaia Principle the author leads us through the evolution of planet Earth; the key biological and chemical events that eventually led to life as we know it; the philosophy, politics, and religion that have shaped Homo Sapiens' environmental policies; and finally provides some sound advice for how humans should live in Earth's ecosystems. Of course it is impossible to construct a model of the universe with all its interactions in a single book or even a single lifetime; but, the author hits all the high points with plenty of easy to understand examples. Her ability to explain complicated physics and biology in terms any laymen can understand is out standing.
The author's main point is directly attached to the Gaia Principle and that Earth will survive anything humans do to it. However, humans may not survive what we do to ourselves. She makes a very convincing case that Homo Sapiens are in the very early stages of their evolution and we have yet to figure out how to use our technology correctly. All other successful life forms have learned to create symbiotic relationships with other living creatures. Modern man is not there yet. Ironically so called primitive societies had it figured out before we brought the industrial revolution on to ourselves. In fact the case is made that Gaia, or the Earth's sense of what is good for itself, may actually be trying to get rid of these destructive, industrialized humans. An argument I have heard before, but never so convincingly as in this book.
The reader who has not studied some Greek philosophy, modern physics, and eastern religion may feel a bit lost. In fact may even question much of what the author states. However the extensive bibliography, of important works by well known scientists and sociologists, should indicate to any reader that the message in this book is well thought out and well documented.
The readers who have not done so already may wish to read Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. The former explains the connection between modern nuclear physics and eastern religions, and the latter why some civilizations managed to over come and dominate other civilizations. Both of these subjects are important to Earthdance and discussed in some detail by the author.
This book should be mandatory reading in every environmental science or environmental management curriculum. I wish I could make it mandatory reading for every politician.
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Handbook of Evolution: The Evolution of Living Systems (Including Hominids)
Franz M. Wuketits , and
Francisco J. Ayala
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Book Description
This two-volume handbook is unique in spanning the entire field of evolution, from the origins of life up to the formation of social structures and science and technology. The author team of world-renowned experts considers the subject from a variety of disciplines, with continuous cross-referencing so as to retain a logical internal structure. The uniformly structured contributions discuss not merely the general knowledge behind the evolution of life, but also the corresponding development of language, society, economies, morality and politics. The result is an overview of the history and methods used in the study of evolution, including controversial theories and discussions. A must for researchers in the natural sciences, sociology and philosophy, as well as for those interested in an interdisciplinary view of the status of evolution today.
Book Description
When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts--indeed, so great that the sum far transcends the parts and represents something utterly new and different--we call that phenomenon emergence. When the chemicals diffusing in the primordial waters came together to form the first living cell, that was emergence. When the activities of the neurons in the brain result in mind, that too is emergence. In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each one highlighting a particularly important moment of emergence. For instance, Morowitz illuminates the emergence of the stars, the birth of the elements and of the periodic table, and the appearance of solar systems and planets. We look at the emergence of living cells, animals, vertebrates, reptiles, and mammals, leading to the great apes and the appearance of humanity. He also examines tool making, the evolution of language, the invention of agriculture and technology, and the birth of cities. And as he offers these insights into the evolutionary unfolding of our universe, our solar system, and life itself, Morowitz also seeks out the nature of God in the emergent universe, the God posited by Spinoza, Bruno, and Einstein, a God Morowitz argues we can know through a study of the laws of nature. Written by one of our wisest scientists, The Emergence of Everything offers a fascinating new way to look at the universe and the natural world, and it makes an important contribution to the dialogue between science and religion.
Customer Reviews:
"Emergence" explained and applied.......2007-06-20
This is a splendid book which will be accessible to readers with relatively moderate technical and scientific background. Morowitz was a professor at Yale, now at George Mason U. in Virginia. An emergence occurs when something unexpected and unpredictable occurs out of a stable substrate condition or state. It is a "wow" moment. Morowitz's research has focussed on "emergence of metabolism" which is one of the topics in the book. The author proposes 28 "steps" or "emergences" beginning with the Big Bang and ending with the anticipated emergence of "spirituality" in the human consciousness. The middle fifteen or so "emergences" relate to "life." It becomes clear that the process of going from "no life" to "life" involved a series of emergences, each so remarkable in itself that their concatenation seems incredible. Indeed, proponents of "intelligent" design by a superior being may find support here for their views. However, the author's reasoning and speculations are based on a broad understanding of both physical and life processes and the resulting story is quite persuasive that the complexity of nature can have arisen spontaneously given the passage of enough time.
Religion and social politics aside..........2006-04-17
this book is a great read. Adoption of any religious/spiritual/philosophical-social aspect, of course, is not completely irrelevant to a treatise, but neither is any type of world-view (existentialistic, deterministic, anarchic, etc.). Here, Morowitz explains the approach he takes to the unfolding of complexity, whether it involves abstracts like human consciousness or tangibles like sand dunes. He believes that there is an inherent order to the universe, that things unfold and become more complex due to very complicated and numerous logarithms . His area of interest here is in using computers to aid in this search for esoteric mathematical relationships between agents and how they interact to form "higher" forms of emergence. He believes that patterns do exist in increasing orders of emergence, so whether or not you put an emphasis on any religious aspect, understand that this point of view is held by even the most atheistic of thinkers. The universe may have laws we humans cannot recognize at this point, and Morowitz makes it clear that perhaps we do not have the proper framework to see those laws right now. This isn't a terribly difficult read, and I recommend it to those folks interested in another aspect to the origin of life studies.
This is one perspective. One man's perspective. I'm a bit alarmed by those who review a perspective with such disdain, as though the reviewer has special knowledge of some obvious truth. Add this perspective to your collection to broaden your mind, not to think you know better than the next PhD...
Complexity, Past, Present, & Future..........2005-05-28
Emergence, as a scientific counterpoint to reductionism could be a dull subject in the hands of a less deft observer of the world. In the hands of Professor Morowitz the subject comes alive with scientific detail and a thoughtful perspective.
Professor Morowitz divides the history of the universe, from the Big Bang until now, into twenty-eight sections, each representing a major emergence. The number is arbitrary but useful. Admittedly, the number of emergences is vast, but the need to keep this on a readable scale is what the author does well. Some sections are more detailed than others. Professor Morowitz admits to having more knowledge in one area than another. The section on chemical reactions is his forte. It's not mine, however, the author begs the reader's indulgence and it is easily given.
This is a highly readable and insightful book on the theory of complexity. Taking emergence into step twenty-eight is a bold and welcome move. I recommend this work to all who take the long view and are in awe of it all.
Another Botched Science/Philosophy Crossover.......2004-12-25
In the last few decades, there have been more and more scientists stepping out into the realm of philosophical thought and tossing in their two cents regarding important metaphysical questions. On the whole, this is a good, encouraging trend.
Yet, it is becoming too predictable that a philosophy book, written in the vain of science, will undoubtedly be strong in the latter, and fall so short in the former: Morowitz's "Emergence of Everything" is yet another testament to this trend.
I do not want to be too harsh, as there are some things this book does well, so I will focus on those first.
"Emergence of Everything" discusses the new trend in scientific thinking to group things into wholes rather than seperate them into parts. This trend was realized in philosophy by the Idealists showing roots in Plato, but taking life with Kant and primarily Hegel.
He then launches into a so-called "brief history of everything;" how evolution has transpired since the beginning of the cosmos until present day. The scientific explanations are quick, sometimes dense, but well-described. He leaves nothing out--including social sciences into latter day evolutions. And in the end even tampers with some spiritual implications. My point: the overview itself is satisfactory... even well-done I suppose.
Unfortunately, that IS basically all of the book's merits. It ends there: just a string of cosmological and historical observations. Despite explicitly calling his own book a "philosophical treatise" he lends no thought, analysis, or anything beyond questioning of the form, patterns or causes of specific evolutions or emergences. Most references to philosophy are more theological than philosophical, and he regularly refers to metaphysical phenomena with vague labels such as "God's Mind."
The book is a great description of the ontological and scientific occurences of our universe's evolution, but all deeper meaning is lost. The bridge he tries to erect is admirable, but typically it has been much sturdier starting from the other side. The theoretical side of this book has been explored more thoroughly by systems theorists', scientists such as Heisenburg and Schroedinger, philosophers from Whitehead to Hegel, Schelling, and even contemporary writers like Habermas and Wilber.
Only worthwhile for its crash-course scientific chronology--even then, you'd be better off with more focused works.
Emerging complexity.......2004-09-28
The Emergence of Everything is a valuable contribution to the dialogue between science and religion. It investigates the concept of emergence and considers fresh angles of looking at the world, at increasing complexity and at consciousness. The idea of emergence provides clues as to how novelty occurs.
The author chose 28 topics to consider, 28 moments of emergence in the history of the universe. Amongst the questions and phenomena discussed are the following: Why is there something rather than nothing? The non-uniformity of the universe, the emergence of stars, the periodic table, the solar system, planetary structure, geospheres, metabolism, cells, the neuron, animalness, hominization, toolmaking, language, agriculture, the worldviews of Athens and of Jerusalem, science and religion.
The point is to use history in order to study emergence, which can generate beliefs. Emergence has a divine aspect, the Word (Immanence) that becomes flesh (Transcendence). By looking at the work of Spinoza, Einstein and others, the author concludes that our evolving minds are the transcendence of the immanent God.
The book provides stimulating thoughts and is an engaging read. Although firmly rooted in pantheism his views are very valuable and interesting. To this reviewer, however, pantheism is limiting for a variety of reasons. Further to this I would like to refer the reader to the idea of panentheism as it manifests in the works of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Krause, Dean Inge and especially Alfred North Whitehead, in particular the last mentioned's magnificent book Process And Reality.
Average customer rating:
- Half of a dissapointment
- A man with a vision
- An intriguing survey of changing images of civil rights
- Almost achieves coherence, but not quite
- Call Me Cyborg
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Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age
Chris Habl Gray
Manufacturer: Routledge
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The Cyborg Handbook
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ASIN: 0415919797 |
Amazon.com
Some great science fiction has asked about robots and the right to vote--but what happens when we're 51 percent artificial ourselves? Cyberculture scholar Chris Hables Gray looks at the ever-changing human body in Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age and makes some well-educated guesses on the makeup of the future cybernetic body politic. Though he does go out of his way to remind the reader that nearly all of us are bioenhanced (that is a vaccination scar, isn't it?), he's neither a chrome-eyed Extropian nor a Rifkinesque fear-mongerer. His thesis is refreshingly simple in a world overfilled with postmodern complexity: we're changing our bodies more and more radically, and we ought to think about how this will change our way of life.
Examining health care, social interactions, and politics, Gray's focus is largely on particular modifications and enhancements such as prosthetic limbs, artificial organs, performance-enhancing drugs, and their descendants. The book never dips into freak show territory, though; even if Gray uses colorful examples to illustrate his points, he still maintains a humanistic attitude throughout. His simple thesis, coupled with this attitude, create a web of thought that is simultaneously entertaining and enlightening. Though our track record on preemptively dealing with change is spotty at best, reading Cyborg Citizen is still a good prescription for keeping the posthuman jitters at bay. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
The growing synergy of humans and technology--from dialysis to genetically altered foods to PET scans--is transforming how we view our minds and our bodies. But how has it changed the body politic? How can we forge a society that protects the rights of human and cyborg alike?
The creator of the cult classic Cyborg Handbook, Chris Hables Gray, now offers the first guide to "posthuman" politics, framing the key issues that could threaten or brighten our technological future. For good or ill, politics has already been cyborged in ways that touch us all: On-line voting promises to change who participates. Wars are won on video screens. Biotechnological advances-- cloning, sexual prostheses, gene patents--are redefining life, death, and family in ways that strain the social contract. In the face of these advances, visions of the cyborg future range from the utopian to the nightmarish, from a spiritual super-race transcending the body's confines to a soulless Borg consuming human individuality.
Only with a broad, historically rich and ethically grounded understanding of these issues, Gray argues, can we combat the threats to our freedom and even our survival. A work of vision and imagination, Cyborg Citizen lays the groundwork for the participatory evolution of our society.
Customer Reviews:
Half of a dissapointment.......2006-03-24
I had a high level of interest upon picking up this book, as cyborg technology and the philosophy behind it, after reading it; however, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I gave it a rating of 3 stars, but I think it deserves more along the lines of a 2.5. This book professes to be about cyborgs, and it is, but Gray's definition of "cyborg" is so incredibly broad that it loses a huge part of its relevancy. He defines a cyborg as "a self-regulating organism that combines the natural and artificial into one system," and takes that as far as it can possibly go, calling unborn fetuses cyborgs if they are viewed by ultrasound, and the average citizen a cyborg for having immunizations. I am a cyborg because I wear glasses.
One aspect of this book that struck me is that nearly everything Gray discusses seems to be along the lines of either common sense of common knowledge to the type of person who would be reading this book in the first place. It is useful as a reference material to springboard off of and steal a few quotes, or perhaps a simple overview of some of the politics of a technological society, but not much more.
By the end of this book, one is tired of the completely over-used word "cyborg"; as it seems to apply to nearly everything and everyone in today's society; as well as Gray's frequent references to the late Christopher Reeves. Like so many movies today, this book is worth a borrow, but I wouldn't plop down my hard earned money for it. If you are looking for in-depth research surrounding the technolgy of cyborgs, look elsewhere.
A man with a vision.......2005-02-08
Not only does his book have a dazzling perspective into all the ways that the body is modified within modern practice he also brings it to a level that even the most novice of readers can grasp. Having been a philosophy student of Mr. Gray's in 1997 I must say it is not quite as enlightening as being in person with him, but it still shows his brilliance and true connection to the cyborg-mentality. Frankly if you can find a way to meet him, every second is worth it. But if you can't, this book is a good close second, and well worth your $ and reading time.
An intriguing survey of changing images of civil rights.......2002-06-05
In Cyborg Citizen, the author argues that the creation of cyborgs calls for new definitions of citizenship. Examples can include Internet offerings and the legal and political issues raised by its use, and issues affecting the mechanization of humans with artificial parts. An intriguing survey of changing images of civil rights and liberties.
Almost achieves coherence, but not quite.......2002-04-01
Why does it seem that all books written about human interaction with emerging technologies are written in postmodernist lingo? Gray's book is not nearly as objectionable in this regard as others (note, especially, the works of Pierre Levy, for truly awe-inspiring levels of incomprehensibiliy). At times he hits on topics that struck me as having a lot of merit (he takes the editors of WIRED to task, for instance, for promoting a sort of hipster-oh-man-this-is-so-awesome approach to technology, and he appropriately skewers libertarianism, etc.). However, I saw two main problems with the book: (1) The author appears to see everything and everybody in the world today as a cyborg of some sort - for example, ultrasound renders the fetus in the womb a cyborg, etc. The concept is so widely applied that it ceases to have meaning. (2) The regrettable lapses into postmodernist drivel, while thankfully infrequent are still discouraging. There is also a little (not a lot) of political correctness a la feminist theory to deal with. For instance, he spends some time skewering (no pun intended) the development of penile implants (cyborg penises!), and points out that the existence of such a phenomena validates the male-centric nature of technology so insightfully criticized by feminist theory. Odd, but no mention of breast implants is made. Purely an oversight, I'm sure!
There are so many serious topics to deal with in the area of our current and future relation to technology - when will someone write a coherent book addressing them?? While this book is an occasionally enjoyable read, in the end it can't be taken all that seriously.
Call Me Cyborg.......2001-10-24
Written in the personal, post-modern style, down to earth, and occasionally profound, Cyborg Citizen is an instructive meditation on the interpenetration of the machine and the human, the machine and the non-human, the human and the non-human. Hables Gray reviews most of the relevant academic literature (Haraway and others) draws examples of cyborg lifestyles from the news (Christopher Reeves and others), from pop culture (TV, Sci-Fi, comic books) to make his larger point that the signs of cyborgization are everywhere now, and that we are all cyborgs now, whether we know it or not. Though penetrated by technoscience, most of us are not aware of the extent to which we have become drafted in the great cyborg experiment. Hables Gray argues we need to find new ways of thinking about the intersection of science, technology, and living things in order to make better (or at least some!) choices about where the technoscience juggernaut is taking us.
He explores a variety of different areas where political thinking has either been ineffective or brushed aside by the exigencies of technoscience and capitalism: Frankenfoods, franken-species, cloning, in-vitro fertilization practices are all covered, as are transgendering and cyborgization in pursuit of sexual fulfillment. He does equal justice to all the complexities these collisions entail. That's why I didn't give the book the full 5 stars, actually, because not all these topics deserve examination at the same length. But that's a minor complaint, of course.
After reading Cyborg Citizen you will find examples of cyborgs everywhere. Of course, as tool users and builders and putterers, we've always been cyborgs -- as much shaped by our tools as the things we've shaped with them -- but the recognition of this fact and how it plays out across the realms of the civic, the economic, the scientific and technological as described in Cyborg Citizen will show the reader how far we are from Rousseau's state of nature -- if indeed there ever was such a place -- but that we may not have much further to go before the tools and cyborgs we build remake the world into place where we would not choose to live, indeed, a world where we may not be able to live. Not anti-techoscience, but rather, pro-thoughtful technoscience, Gray lays out the conundrums simply and argues that to be only pro or anti-techoscience is a luxury we cannot afford. Ultimately, he argues that as cyborgs we have to start thinking about what that really means.
Book Description
Do genes explain life? Can advances in evolutionary and molecular biology account for what we look like, how we behave, and why we die? In this powerful intervention into current biological thinking, Brian Goodwin argues that such genetic reductionism has important limits.
Drawing on the sciences of complexity, the author shows how an understanding of the self-organizing patterns of networks is necessary for making sense of nature. Genes are important, but only as part of a process constrained by environment, physical laws, and the universal tendencies of complex adaptive systems. In a new preface for this edition, Goodwin reflects on the advances in both genetics and the sciences of complexity since the book's original publication.
Customer Reviews:
Something of Value, but User Assembly Required.......2006-03-08
Goodwin and some others like to call his point a view a new theory of evolution. Call it what you will, I think it falls way short of a new theory, mostly in the body of evidence category, but also because it doesn't understand and refute Darwinian theory.
What it is, is, a collection of interesting observations that points out that not all in morphology is determined by genetics, but that "excitable systems" are responsible for some aspects of developement and speciation. To me, this helps explains the sources of randomness and arbitrary choice we see in genetic drift or in neutral adapation theory. It is an interesting new flavor in the frosting of the Darwinian cake, but it is not a new cake.
What irritates me to no end about this book is the last two chapters, in which Goodwin makes a totally unsubstantiated (and barely followable) leap to connect his work to the Gaia hypothesis. Here he becomes cloyingly sweet and politically correct in one breath, and it is here that I finally suffocated.
Misinformed.......2005-11-19
Brian Goodwin's book might be worth reading from the perspective that it brings a voice to a little-heard structuralist perspective on evolution. As a biologist myself, though, I have to say that Goodwin misses the mark. Goodwin's knowledge of Darwinian theory is inadequate to critique it, and his knowledge of genetics abyssmal.
Goodwin's central thesis is that organisms adapt out of a structural interaction with the environment. Sort of like a crystal forming on an icy window. Interesting idea, and perhaps with some developmental relevance, but the simple fact that two genetically different organisms placed in an identical environment (an experiment that has been repeated ad naseum since the invention of genetics) are observed to develop differently pretty much lays ruin to Goodwin's thesis.
Readers who are not scientists should know that Goodwin's ideas are tin-foil-hat fr
Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)
Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (Helix Books)
Introducing Evolutionary Psychology, 2nd Edition
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
New Rules for the New Economy
