Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly, Editor-at-Large of Wired, author of New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World and Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World/
A soaring song of songs about the amorous origins of the world,
and
its almost medieval urge to copulate.
David Sloan Wilson
-David Sloan Wilson, co-author of Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior:
Howard Bloom believes that the Leviathan, or society as an organism, is not
a fanciful metaphor but an actual product of evolution. The Darwinian
struggle for existence has taken place among societies, as well as among
individuals within societies. We do strive as individuals, but we are also
part of something larger than ourselves, with a complex physiology and mental
life that we carry out but only dimly understand. With this bold vision of
evolution and human behavior, Bloom has raced ahead to explore possibilities
that the timid scientific herd may well be forced to follow.
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan, author of Biospheres and co-author of Into the Cool: The New Thermodynamics of Life:
The Thales of the Internet, H. Bloom thinks what he wants, writes what he
thinks and performs his synthesis with a good heart, uncompromising truth,
creative brain and mountains of evidence. From the bacterial web of Eschel
Ben Jacob to the scientific side-lining of Professor Ling, we see the
daunting power of groups that interact and sacrifice their members in order
to thrive and evolve.
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff, author of Ecstasy Club, Media Virus, Coercion:
A modern-day prophet, Bloom compels us to admit that evolution is a team
sport. This is a picture of the universe in which human emotions find their
basis in the survival of matter, and the atoms themselves are held together
with love. I am awestruck.
Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor, University of
Massachusetts, and recipient of a 1999 National Medal of Science
This lusty tome generated by Bloom's voracious reading habit and
extraordinary talent for explanation proclaims that groups of
individuals -- from people to vervet monkeys to bacteria -- organize themselves,
create novelty, alter their surroundings and triumph to leave more offspring
than loner individuals. A stunning commitment to scientific evidence, this
sequel to The Lucifer Principle ought to purge the academic world of "selfish genes" and the neodarwinist dogma of individual selection.
Robin Fox
Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory, Rutgers University, and
co-author of The Imperial Animal:
In a superbly written and totally original argument, Howard Bloom continues
his one-man tradition of tackling the taboo subjects. With a marvelously
erudite survey of life and society from bacteria to the Internet, he
demonstrates that group selection is for real and the group mind was there
from the start. What we are entering now is but the latest phase in the
evolution of the global brain. This is a must read for professionals and
laymen alike.
Elizabeth Loftus
Elizabeth Loftus, past president, American Psychological Society, and
author of Witness for the Defense and The Myth of Repressed Memory:
Howard Bloom's Global Brain is filled with scientific firsts. It
is the first book to make a strong, solidly backed, and
theoretically-original
case that we do not live the lonely lives of selfish beings driven by
selfish genes, but are parts of a larger whole. It is the first to propose
that
sociality was implicit in the start of the universe--the Big Bang. Global
Brain is the first book to present strong evidence that evolutionary,
biological, perceptual, and emotional mechanisms have made us parts of a
social learning machine--a mass mind which includes all species of life,
not
just humankind. It is the first to take this idea out of the realm of
mysticism and into the sphere of hard-nosed, data-derived reality. And it
is one of the few books which carry off such grand visions with energy,
excitement, and keen insight.
