Customer Reviews

The Hidden Connections: Integrating The Biological, Cognitive, And Social Dimensions Of Life Into A Science Of Sustainability

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If you are looking to save the world via fiction, see Daniel Quinn. If you are looking to save the world via non-fiction, look no further than Hidden Connections. This book will provide you with everything you need (including a new mind and new conception of self) to get right with the ecosphere and the damage we have all helped inflict upon her. (Don't think the world is in trouble, see Lester Brown's ECO-ECONOMY).

Not a science buff, chapter one didn't blow my doors, although I was interested by what Capra had to say and (luckily) was able to wrap my head around all the concepts. In this chapter, he traces the evolution of life on the planet, and therewith provides a novel definition of life. A good place to start any book, I suppose, but certainly one about the future prospects of life on this planet.

Chapter two deals with mind and consciousness. In this chapter, Capra bridges the ancient Cartesian chasm between mind and body, defines cognition and consciousness, and explains the meaning of language. He even throws out some theories about the origin and evolution of all the above.

Chapter three breaks from the previous two chapters, as Capra delves into social reality. In this chapter he gives meaning to the world "meaning," explains social theory from Max Weber to Habermas, discusses human freedom, explains the three forms of power (coercive, compensatory, and conditioned power, or education), and talks about technology and culture.

For me, the book really picks up with chapter four, "Life and Leadership in Organizations." This chapter, Capra discusses what the definition of life means when applied to the corporate business world. Issues such as managment, labor rights, and the role of creativity are sure to please. It is this chapter that gets the ball rolling, which doesn't stop until the very last page.

Chapter seven almost left me breathless. Here Capra provides a thoroughgoing critique of the globalization. Books like THE CASE AGAINST THE GLOBAL ECONOMY are much longer and more detailed, but that is exactly what gives Capra's presentation unique: As with every subject, he synthesizes his argument into concise, lazer-like prose, drawing upon the work of hundreds of scholars, all well-documented in an A++ index.

Chapter eight deals with biotechnology, perhaps the defining charadcteristic of 21st century. This chapter covers a lot of ground: He explains genes, advances the freewill-determinism argument (freewill wins), gives a concise history of the Green Revolution, genetically modified organisms, the silent organic revolution, biopiracy, ecodesign, and biomimicry. As with the chapter on the global economy, this chapter is written in stunning prose that will not disappoint.

The last chapter is called "Changing the Game". In this chapter, Capra outlines the ecocide we are inflicting on the planet (again, a subject discussed singularly and to great satisfaction in ECO-ECONOMY), and what we can do to fix it. In this chapter, he gives a coherent definition of sustainability, outlines ecolitery, explains solar power, hypercars, converstion to a zero-waste hydrogen economy, and green tax shift that supports employment and taxes non-sustainable practices.

The way in which Capra weaves the concept of the network throughout the whole of this book is facinating, a subject which harkens back to his last book, THE WEB OF LIFE. Throughout HIDDEN CONNECTIONS, you will be exposed to many of networks with subtle power that is revolutionizing human culture and the fate of the planet as a whole: including academic networks, social protest networks and political networks. You will not finish this volume without feeling completely changed - and informed. No doubt, ecoliteracy can save the planet. I highly recommend this book.

A quote to wet your whistle: "Whereas the extraction of resources and the accumlation of waste are bound to reach their ecological limits, the evolution of life has demonstrated for more than three billion years that in a sustainable Earth houshold, there are no limits to development, diversification, innovation, and creativity."

Chapter Four of this book offers everyone, but particularly leaders, change advocates and consultants a rich opportunity to learn about systemic change in organizations. Capra articulates an accessible, fundamental conceptual theory of human organizations that has immediate relevance at all organizational levels. Application of these ideas and insights will build capacity for large scale, sustainable change which, at least in my own field of education reform, has been far too rare. I like the idea of a "community of practice" as being one definition of an organization. He uses Meg Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers' treatment of human organizations particularly well. (I hope they agree!) If the essential question is, "How do we create sustainable change in human organizations?" some the answers are in Chapter Four of The Hidden Connections and its supporting bibliography. The rest of the book is an exciting excursion through living systems small and large that reflects Capra's quest to understand how everything that matters works.

This is the sort of book that one would want to make required reading for all cognitive beings on this planet, as our future may well depend upon behaviors based on the information available here.

Unfortunately, the complexity of say, the Santiago Thoery, although beautifully written, seems to be beyond the interest or understanding of most people. They might even start it and put it aside in frustration because it conflicts with deeply engrained ideas from philosophy, biology, and religion.

In this book, Capra expands on the ideas presented in Web of Life, and makes them relevant to our present and future lives, as well as to Life itself. I cannot recommend it enough.

This book was really a true pleasure to read! This book provides us with a very beautiful picture of how all matter (both organic and non-organic) including ourselves is connected and related to each other. Even though the author tries to illuminate us on how we are destroying ourselves, he has a positive vision that is still realizeable if we allow our consciousness to evolve more. I believe we are in desparate need of writers like this at this day and age where we are closing in on the extinction of our own species. If you'd like to learn about how all of this relates to the human mind and why we do some of the terrible things we do to ourselves, read "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is an absolutely incredible book that will further your understanding of nature (including ourselves) immensely.

Physicist Fritjof Capra is perhaps best known for his 1975 book, THE TAO OF PHYSICS, which is now in its fourth printing. In THE HIDDEN CONNECTIONS, he covers a lot of ground in just 288 pages--3.8 billion years, to be exact--to reveal the remarkable interconnectedness of all things, from cells to language to the internet to spirituality to the global economy, that make up the ever-evolving web of life in which we live. However, as fascinating as this journey might be, in the end this is a book with a convincing message about sustainability, which Capra offers without ever sounding preachy. This thought-provoking book will appeal to anyone who enjoyed THE TAO OF PHYSICS or THE WEB OF LIFE, or to anyone who finds Thomas Berry's DREAM OF THE EARTH and THE GREAT WORK meaningful.

G. Merritt

This book has something for almost everyone. It extends complexity theory into social networks, bringing in discussion of communication and the making of meaning. It addresses cognition and consciousness, even touching on spirituality, in Chapter 2. It moves into organizational practice beginning in Chapter 4 that includes a vision of leadership, then moves to the larger world stage, addressing global capitalism, biotechnology, the new civil society, and eco-sustainability. He even suggests a new tax structure!

There is a lot in this book, and Capra models the web of interconnectedness throughout. Because there is so much, sometimes I would like to see more depth in areas that interest me particularly, but he gives hints of where to look for deeper information for those interested. This book clearly builds on his previous work "The Web of Life" and while still theoretical, brings in a great deal more practical application. I highly recommend the book.

A fine book, as are all of Capra's. The discussion ranges far and wide, with many interesting insights. He has obvious researched it thoroughly. The way in which he moves between topics such as globalization, gene-manipulated food, the latest results of the Human Genome project, consciousness etc. is admirable. His treatment of each of the topics, though not always in as much depth as I would have liked, is clear and readbale. Capra again champions system thinking as he did in `Web of Life' - and this is certainly an improvement on the linear reductionism that characterizes the old fashioned mind-sets of most establishment biologists, mostly in the pay of the GM consortium or with other vested interests in supporting the status quo that says that "genes cause behavior". However, I feel that he stops short at mechanisms such as emergence - his adherence to Maturana & Varela's autopoetic version of cognitive processes is still too mechanist-materialist for my liking. I think he could have gone further, e.g. with consciousness, to the hard problem of how subjective awareness arises from objective processes - and emergence is not enough here, as all other examples are of the emergence of a greater level of objective complexity from simpler components. The hard problem is how can a qualitatively different thing such as subjective consciousness arise from any objective process, no matter how complex.

Similarly in his discussion of genes, he points out that viewing the epi-genetic network as a non-linear system gets to higher levels of complexity. But still, for my money that doesn't explain the loaves and fishes effect of the 11 physiological sub-systems of the body, it's coherent form and stability as well as the complexity of the brain arising from between 2 and 10 Megabytes of data in the genome. The upper limit of 10 MB is including tricks with shuffling round sub-sections of large genes to give other combinations. Anyway, the discussion of all that will go into my book. I hope mine will be as clear and readable as this masterpiece.

Another good point in my view is his inclusion of meaning as one of the pillars of his 4-fold integral vision - the choice of the others: matter, form and process - is somewhat different to other integral systems - e.g. that of Wilber - but equally interesting.

Finally, he paints a black picture of the horrors of globalisation and the ugly face of modern capitalism whose linear vision of greed and gluttony is the driving force behind the vampire computerised financial system that sucked the lifeblood out of many small countries and even the poor in rich countries like America. Capra righly calls for more controls on this system of mind-numbing stupity and linear evil. At least some rays of hope are described - mainly the way in which Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) via the internet succeeded in stopping the World Bank & co. from forcing furhter brutal ravages on the third world as part of their nightmare vision of Globalisation. Also, he shows how grass-roots revulsion at the horrible effects of genetically engineered food has pushed back the blindly linear thinking that was leading attacks on the delicate balance of the ' web of life'.

So, just read it...

Capra attempts to provide a conceptual framework that integrates the physical, cognitive and social dimensions in order to present a unified view of consciousness, society and life and also to develop a coherent and systemic approach to addressing the world's most pressing problems.

In the first part he constructs a new theoretical framework by looking at the nature of life, the nature of consciousness and the nature of social reality. He deals extensively with networking that has become an important social phenomenon and a critical source of power in the world.

The second part explores the management of human organisations, i.e. why and how these are living systems; economic globalisation; a systemic analysis of the ethical and scientific problems of biotechnology, with reference to the human genome project, and; the major problems facing the world today.

The author does a good job of pointing out the unified systems that integrate the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life and of explaining how a new vision of reality is unfolding, together with the social implications of this transformation.

Hidden Connections is a great read. The book contains explanatory notes, a bibliography and an index. Other interesting books dealing with this subject include Small Worlds by Mark Buchanan and Beyond Chaos: The Underlying Theory Behind Life, the Universe, and Everything by Mark Ward.

Networks rule! Capra traces the growth of networks ranging from the minute life functions established in the earliest cells through to today's global economic organizations. Asserting that life's origins began with fat globs providing a base, cells could then develop compound structures by absorption of chemicals or other, smaller, organisms. Biological patterns were expanded, not changed, as evolution progressed through time. Complexity increased opportunity for life to inhabit new niches and adapt more readily to change. Capra embraces the "Santiago Theory of Cognition" which expresses evolution as a recursive process. "Thinking" about adaptation to changing environments leads to new lifeforms. With the process established across all life, he's able to toy with Lovelock's Gaia thesis, adding fresh ornamentation to the idea of the biosphere as a single organism.

Capra weaves a picture of humanity as tightly threaded with the rest of nature's tapestry. Our composition, our habits, our creations are entwined with all other living things. He insists we must recognize our integration with the rest of the biosphere. He offers a novel mechanism to achieve that awareness. Past science has focussed too narrowly - a habit he decries as "reductionist." He urges the creation of a "new type of science dealing with qualities rather than quantities" a proposal emitting the aroma of some of the recent "post-modernist" philosophers.

In the second part of the book he addresses some of the human-designed mechanisms. Human structures are complex, even paradoxical, he argues. Our organizations carry a "dual nature" - the mechanistic drive for profit running in parallel with the community of humans who have personal needs to fulfill. These elements are essentially conflicting and many compromises must be made to achieve both ends. The effort also results in "two kinds of leadership," those with the drive to create and those protecting human values. The extension of the "creators" has given us "globalisation" while the "protectors" are struggling for recognition and acceptance. Today's striving for a global economy is the final extension of the biological networking process - only its aims differ. Almost as a sidelight, Capra sees globalisation as having created a new, almost parallel economy in the formation of a world embracing "crime economy." This bizarre force operates in parallel with "legitimate" business ends, although using similar mechanisms.

In order to cope with all these forces, Capra wishes us to foster his "new type of science" to gain further acceptance. Unfortunately, the first step is the major weakness of the book. Having already given us a biology resting on shaky assertions, he goes on to create a structure of straw. A whole section of the book rails against the sin of "genetic determinism." This is an outmoded and false concept, except to those who wish to attack science. Capra uses the term as a bludgeon to attack the failures of the "green revolution" and the promises of biotechnology. These are valid targets, but the weapon is flimsy. It's almost a non-sequitor when set against his view of corporate operations.

Capra's reliance on weak weapons is furthered by the limitations of his sources. His reading list is sparse, to say the least. He's chosen a few like-minded philosophers, but there is little in the way of serious scientific input. Given the scope of this book, that's regrettable. The edifice he's built is timely. We need to know more about nature, not just as "environment" but in the details that might provide more insight. Unfortunately, the many loose bricks in his structure tend to shake his credibility. If his work was more informative and less polemical, especially when he attacks targets he doesn't identify, there might be more reason to admire the grandeur of his construction. Instead, we must turn elsewhere for better material. Since the "quality" he seeks remains elusive, we must make new bricks of real data. His architecture is admirable, but the construction must be of firmer components. E.O. Wilson provides a more stable foundation.

The Hidden Connections employs inductive and deductive processes that includes the predominate traits in the character and cognition of individuals and the notion of life, the effective character of influential groups, and the coalescence of individual and group desires when people respond to various stimuli. Capra refers to this as `The Dynamics of Culture'. It is a very well researched, primarily academic treatise on the science of sustainability.

"Our ability to hold mental images and project them into the future not only allows us to identify goals and purposes and develop strategies and designs, but also enables us to choose among several alternatives and hence to formulate values and social rules of behavior...The social network also produces a body of knowledge-including information, ideas, and skills-that shapes the culture's distinctive way of life in addition to its values and beliefs...This meaningful knowledge, continually modified by the network of communications, is passed on from generation to generation together with the culture's values, beliefs, and rules of conduct." Pp 85-87.

There are numerous worthwhile lessons that can be gleaned from this work. Capra's study improves the analyst's ability to understand various peoples and to apply the concept of character to practical problems in intelligence and security relations and helps to avoid the common pitfalls of `mirror imaging'.

Among others, those who are interested in national security and law enforcement intelligence gain a clearer understanding on the meaning of the term `sustainability' and of related terms and concepts so often encountered in organizational studies and in intelligence readings. This should also serve to turn the light on for policymakers. ..."the original meaning of `authority' is not `power to command,' but `a firm basis for knowing and acting' ...the origin of power, then, lies in culturally defined positions of authority on which the community relies for the resolution of conflicts and for decisions about how to act wisely and effectively. In other words, true authority consists in empowering others to act." P 89.

"It is common to hear that people in organizations resist change. In reality, people do not resist change; they resist having change imposed on them. ...Moreover, it will help us design business organizations that are ecologically sustainable, since the principles of organization of ecosystems, which are the basis of sustainability, are identical to the principles of organization of all living systems." P 100.