There is no longer sufficient time to rely on the normal pace of cultural evolution to deal with today's dilemmas... Human beings have always been the most adaptable creatures on the planet, and they should be able to chart a new course for themselves. Some of that charting is already being done. The old mind today is being challenged and changed by many scattered efforts. Can we bring these efforts together to produce a large-scale program for a rapid "change of mind"? We know what the problem is. The "solution" is not simple--to generate the social and political will to move a program of conscious evolution to the top of the human agenda.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist and population expert, has teamed with psychologist Ornstein ( The Psychology of Consciousness ) to produce an important and urgent prescription for sanity. They perceive a mismatch between the human nervous system and our complex modern world: unlike early hunter-gatherers who evolved quick reflexes to cope with a limited environment, modern Americans face long-range problems not readily apparent to the five sensesexploding population, proliferation of nuclear warheads, depletion of the ozone layer, a staggering budget deficit, mass slaughter on our highways and by handguns. Whether or not one accepts the biological premise of their argument, their engagingly written, continually provocative synthesis effectively demonstrates how we use crude mental caricatures to manipulate a social and physical environment gone haywire. Although their talk of initiating conscious evolutionary progress in human beings may seem farfetched, their concrete proposals on TV programming, arms control, environmental planning, child rearing and curriculum changes are well worth heeding.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Doubleday. Jan. 1989. c.312p. index. ISBN 0-385-23940-8. $18.95. psych According to Ehrlich and Ornstein, the "new world" of short-term technological and environmental change requires a "new mind" capable of perceiving long-term, slow-motion calamity; if we learn to think probabilistically, we can recognize misjudgment and cognitive bias. The authors therefore recommend a formal effort to train minds to filter in, not filter out, imperceptible changes in global ecology and the large-scale consequences of economic growthmanship. They would also expand media reporting of gradual trends as an antidote to our outmoded view of the world as static. A timely book that should inspire each of us to assess more accurately the not-so-benign implications of the technological mobilization of humanity and the earth. William Abrams, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From 1989, Not Updated, Superb Never-the-Less,
By Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
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This review is from: New World New Mind: Moving Toward Conscious Evolution (Paperback)
EDIT 20 Dec 07 to add links.
This superb book was published in 1989 and is being reissued, and I am very glad it has come out again. I bought it because it was recommended by Tom Atlee, seer of the Co-Intelligence Institute, and I found it very worthwhile. As I reflect on the book, I appreciate two key points from the book: 1) The evolution of our brains and our ability to sense cataclysmic change that takes place over long periods of time is simply not going fast enough--the only thing that can make a difference is accelerated cultural evolution, which I find quite fascinating, because cultural evolution as the authors describe it harkens to noosphere, World Brain, co-intelligence, and what the Swedes are calling M4 IS: multinational, multiagency, multidisciplinary, multidomain information sharing--what I think of as Open Source Intelligence--personal, public, & political. 2) One of the more compelling points the authors make is that not only are politicians being elected and rewarded on the basis of short-term decisions that are by many measures intellectually, morally, and financially corrupt, but the so-called knowledge workers--the scientists, engineers, and others who should be "blowing the whistle," are so specialized that there is a real lack of integrative knowledge. I realized toward the end of the book, page 248 exactly, that Knowledge Integration & Information Sharing must become the new norm. This is a tremendous book that is loaded with gems of insight. I have it heavily marked up. Although it integrates and reminds me of ideas ably explored in other books, such as Health of Nations, Cultural Creatives, Clock of the Long Now, ATTENTION, Limits to Growth, and Forbidden Knowledge, these two authors have integrated their "brief" in a very readable way--as one person says on the book jacket, they effectively weave together many strands of knowledge. The annotated bibliography is quite good, and causes me to be disappointed that the publishers did not provide for the updating of the bibliography--the ideas being blended are timeless and need no update. Two notes toward the end were quite interesting. They speculate that Japan may be the first modern nation to collapse, if it is subject to disruption of the global trade and transportation system. They also have high praise for Global 2000, an integrative work whose predictions for the 2000 period (written in the 1970's, I believe) are turning out to be quite accurate. Finally, woven throughout the book, is the simple fact that we are now burning up our savings--consuming the Earth at a much faster rate than it can replenish itself. We are very much out of harmony with our sustaining environment, and at grave risk of self-destruction. Interestingly, they remind of the Durants last word in "The Lessons of History:" that the only revolution, the only sustainable revolution, is that which takes place in the human mind. As these authors would have it, if we do not develop a new collective mind capable of integrating, understanding, and acting sensible, for the long term, on what we can know as a collective mind, then our grandchildren will become prey for the cockroaches of the future. At a time when the new Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Ambassador Negroponte, is seriously contemplating the establishment of a national Open Source (Information) Agency as recommended by the 9-11 Commission, to get a grip on all the historical and current knowledge, both scientific and social, that we have lost touch with, I can think of just three books I would recommend to the DNI as a foundation for his reflections: this one, Buckman's "Creating a Knowledge Driven Organization," and Wheatley's "Leadership and the New Science." I would end his tutorial, or perhaps inspire it, by screening Tom Atlee's video, "From Group Magic to a Wise Democracy." Strangely, for I tend to be very gloomy about our prospects these days, I find that this book has cheered me somewhat. I sense the possibility of a break-out through a combination of wise information acquisition and sharing policies, and the application of the new technologies that L-3, CISCO, and IBM, among others, are bringing out, technologies that put intelligence on the edge of the network, and permit the creation of infinitely scalable and shareable synthetic information exactly suited to any need at any level. There *is* an answer to all that ails us, and these two authors discuss it in a very capable manner. See also, with reviews: Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century World brain Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An important point,
By John Martineau "John Martineau" (Glastonbury UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: New World New Mind: Moving Toward Conscious Evolution (Paperback)
This is a great book, and still relevant. It suggests that evolution has been running at different speeds in the different areas of human biology, culture and science, and uses this distinction to try and understand why mankind is so very bad at dealing with long-term threats like global warming. The proof of Ornstein's central idea is in the increasing cartoonisation of the world that has continued in the media since the book was published. We are essentially still monkeys. argue the authors, monkeys with clever toys, and we still respond to threats like bangs and baby-snatchings in exactly the same way that we used to when we lived in caves, and the modern media and its masters know this. If anything the so-called 'War on Terror' proves the authors point 15 years after the book was written.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an important book,
This review is from: New World New Mind: Moving Toward Conscious Evolution (Paperback)
This book is nearly twenty years old and is still entirely relevant, which is probably a good part of the reason it's still in print. Mr. Ornstein and Mr. Ehrlich make the basic point that the human brain is not suited for detecting many of the gradually escalating or insidious dangers, such as overpopulation and climate change, that threaten our very existence as a species. Not only do they elaborate upon this point in a highly readable fashion, but also put forth ways that we can minimize the problem, such as through educating children differently. This book should be required reading in our schools. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.
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