Probably one of the most original thinkers of recent years, Fritjof
Capra shot to popular fame with The Tao of Physics in 1975, an
attempt to combine the worlds of hard science - he has a PhD in
theoretical physics - with philosophy and spirituality. His latest
book is more ambitious yet, taking in new discoveries in genetic
science and biotechnology and incorporating them into his
individualistic world view of how mankind subsists on this planet -
or, more accurately, how we could and should subsist. Capra's main
appeal is that he can popularise science in the same way as Stephen
Hawking or John Gribbin, presenting complicated concepts in
digestible chunks of plain English. Yet he goes a step further
still, weaving a web between all the natural sciences, from physics
to psychology, until the reader is almost dizzy with the
possibilities he presents. His aim is no less than a systemic
understanding of life and its meaning, bridging the gap between the
physical and the non-physical by applying the same understanding of
form, matter, process and meaning to everything we encounter,
whether it is the creation of a single-cell organism or the
structure of global capitalism. It is a concept of breathtaking
audacity, the idea that the meaning of life itself can be
summarised in a paperback of less than 300 pages, yet somehow Capra
seems to make it all make sense. Whether he is discussing the
nature of conscious experience, the aims of campaigners against GM
food, or the transition to the hydrogen economy, he is never less
than simple and instructive. He makes no bones about stating, in
his epilogue: 'The great challenge of the twenty-first century will
be to change the value system underlying the global economy, so as
to make it compatible with the demands of human dignity and
ecological sustainability'; and, although such a grand aim will no
doubt attract scepticism, it is certainly worth reading this
genre-defying book to find out more about the possibilities Capra
sees for humanity. (Kirkus UK)
Recent scientific discoveries indicate that all of life – from the most primitive cells, up to human societies, corporations and nation-states, even the global economy – is organized along the same basic patterns and principles: those of the network.
However, the new global economy differs in important aspects from the networks of life: whereas everything in a living network has a function, globalism ignores all that cannot give it an immediate profit, creating great armies of the excluded. The global financial network also relies on advanced information technologies – it is shaped by machines, and the resulting economic, social and cultural environment is not life-enhancing but life-degrading, in both a social and an ecological sense.
Capra demonstrates conclusively how tightly humans are connected with the fabric of life and makes it clear that it is imperative to organize the world according to a different set of values and beliefs, not only for the well-being of human organizations, but for the survival and sustainability of humanity as a whole.
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