Customer Reviews

Hidden Connections

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a valuable successor to Capra's earlier books, all of which seek to discuss matters of critical societal and ecological concern within the framework of scientific analysis and understanding.

The book is in two parts. The first three chapters provide a brilliant summary of current thinking about the nature of life, mind and consciousness, and social reality as an emergent property of social organization seen as a complex adaptive system. It's very good but not easy to read. The remaining four chapters and epilogue can be read separately, although they rely on the theories in the first part. They form a wide-ranging critique of the current governance of organisations and of globalisation, with what amounts to a very detailed case study of how these structures produce the fundamentally dishonest and very dangerous commercial drive to GM foods. The final chapter offers broad guidelines for reshaping the current political and economic framework to bring economic incentives into harmony with the needs of society and the natural world. 

As in Capra's other books, he provides a easy to understand and compelling look at living systems. In this book he takes a substantial leap forward in providing a broad based look at the evolution of the field and the impact on systems that we are now experiencing in our world. He also provides examples and references to successful examples of what we can do if we have the will to do so. What a powerful reference and one that I refer to regularly. If there was but one book to understand living systems and how the science has evolved and the impact on our world, please read this book. I can not recommend it more highly.

Capra attempts to connect biological models with cognition and social structures. It has inspired me to think about media in new, ecological terms. This is a great book for defining paradigms. The first section, which focuses a lot on technical biological science lays the groundwork for the rest of the book. Gene and cell networks can be applied to how cultures and societies are structured. Some chapters are truly scary (such as the section on biotechnology), and others are very uplifting (like the chapter "Changing the Game"). This book is a must have for people looking for a sustainable blueprint to the future.

This is a highly intelligent book that applies deep philosophical insights and the tenets of complexity theory to the natural world, the social system, and the global economic system. The average layperson will find it mentally challenging, but enlightening as well. Particularly interesting to me was the discussion of epigenetics, which shows that evolution is not a simple function of genes mutating, but a complex and little-understood interaction between genes and the individual organism's environment and personal choices. I agree with the author's view that the unchecked greed of the global financial systems will surely lead to the utter destruction of our natural environment, and the Enron debaucle shows just how removed from reality the assignment of a company's "worth" is in a financial system that is hopelessly tied up in speculations. The changes required to fix these problems would be nothing less than a revolutionary overhaul of the world's economic and political policies, and I do not share the author's optimism that this could happen merely by the action of grassroots organizations, no matter how organized they have become. It will take a global collapse for this to happen, because historically humans only make changes of that magnitude in the face of a crisis...we are not focused on prevention, especially if it means those with money will lose it. This is the only reason I give 4 stars instead of 5...Capra is just too idealistic.

As always Fritjof Capra is a master of linking apparently non connected events with a systemic view of life. It is fresh, relaxing, and so rich while making simple views there where others will desperately look for complicated concepts and theories. I think Capra's mind is not far away from Da Vinci's and the new full, humanistic, interdependent kind of human beings.
I thank him for every tiny bit of his thoughts in continuity with his movie "Mind Walk" that some day... some day... we will have available in DVD version.

Everything the previous reviewers have said regarding the clarity of explanation, the scientific references and brilliant summary is generally true. I have one big issue with this book. I have enjoyed reading the first 5 chapters. However, the transition from the scientific background (Biology and Physics) to the second half which attempts to show that globalization is not aligned with cell cultures and human social structures is at least not convincing if not flat wrong.
(a) The transition is based on subjective data and modeled on management theory, which is NOT a Science. (b) The second half reads more like "this is where I wanted to go with this book, anyway" rather than logically explaining the scientific reasoning. It really does look like the author's political opinions may have gotten in the way of a clean scientific analysis.