On the Reading Stand: The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems by Fritjof Capra

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

-- Chief Seattle

In the study of my latest interests --  in networks, open systems, and emergence -- comes this new, terrific HPB Clearance Sale book find:

The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems by Fritjof Capra 

The vitality and accessibility of Fritjof Capra's ideas have made him perhaps the most eloquent spokesperson of the latest findings emerging at the frontiers of scientific, social, and philosophical thought. In his international bestsellers The Tao of Physics and The Turning Point, he juxtaposed physics and mysticism to define a new vision of reality. In The Web of Life, Capra takes yet another giant step, setting forth a new scientific language to describe interrelationships and interdependence of psychological, biological, physical, social, and cultural phenomena--the "web of life."

During the past twenty-five years, scientists have challenged conventional views of evolution and the organization of living systems and have developed new theories with revolutionary philosophical and social implications. Fritjof Capra has been at the forefront of this revolution. In The Web of Life, Capra offers a brilliant synthesis of such recent scientific breakthroughs as the theory of complexity, Gaia theory, chaos theory, and other explanations of the properties of organisms, social systems, and ecosystems. Capra's surprising findings stand in stark contrast to accepted paradigms of mechanism and Darwinism and provide an extraordinary new foundation for ecological policies that will allow us to build and sustain communities without diminishing the opportunities for future generations.

The Web of Life is cutting-edge science writing in the tradition of James Gleick's Chaos, Gregory Bateson's Mind and Matter, and Ilya Prigogine's Order Out of Chaos.

Scott London blog Book Review:

http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/capra.html

"The User Illusion": The Low Bandwidth of Conciousness

Brains, brains, brains. I just can't seem to get enough data about the convoluted feedback systems at work in our complex brain networks. While still working on the sleep book The Head Trip, I've also been reading Tor Norretranders' The User Illusion. This is a fascinating blend of Information Theory and neuroscience. I'd already read much on the genius information scientist Claude Shannon in William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula and James Gleick's The Information, and the unification of these recent favorite themes of neuroscience and Information Theory is very appealing for me. Two thumbs up, but I still have to finish the book. Maybe tonight!

From Amazon, "The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size by Tor Norretranders.  As John Casti wrote, "Finally, a book that really does explain consciousness." This groundbreaking work by Denmark's leading science writer draws on psychology, evolutionary biology, information theory, and other disciplines to argue its revolutionary point: that consciousness represents only an infinitesimal fraction of our ability to process information. Although we are unaware of it, our brains sift through and discard billions of pieces of data in order to allow us to understand the world around us. In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information. What our consciousness rejects constitutes the most valuable part of ourselves, the "Me" that the "I" draws on for most of our actions -- fluent speech, riding a bicycle, anything involving expertise. No wonder that, in this age of information, so many of us feel empty and dissatisfied. As engaging as it is insightful, this important book encourages us to rely more on what our instincts and our senses tell us so that we can better appreciate the richness of human life."

Amazon review

The "user illusion" in computing is the desktop graphical user interface (GUI): the friendly, comprehensible illusion presented to the user to conceal all the bouncing bits and bytes that do the actual work. Tor Nørretranders writes that "our consciousness is a user illusion for ourselves and the world ... one's very own map of oneself and one's possibilities of intervening in the world." Much of Nørretranders' evidence comes from comparing the wide bandwidth of experience to the narrow bandwidth of consciousness, and from examining how much of our brain function is never consciously acknowledged. Although slightly out of date (the book was written in 1991; it was a bestseller in Europe), The User Illusion has been well translated and gives a refreshing take on a problem that is not likely to go away anytime soon.

From Library Journal

Nirretranders declares: "Consciousness is a fraud." The realm of the subconscious "Me" is infinitely richer and must be cultivated if we are to experience the full sensation of reality. A best seller in the author's native Denmark, this book weaves together concepts from mathematics, computer science, neurology, and psychology.

Read, Read, and Read Some More: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

Here's a great book that sheds some light on Edward O. Thorp's roulette wheel-predicting buddy, the genius Claude Shannon. I smile when I recall William Poundstone's opening description about Shannon in Fortune's Formula, something along the lines of, "It would be unfair to Claude Shannon to Albert Einstein. Unfair to Shannon because he was so much smarter."

This hefty tome is touted on Amazon as, "From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.  

Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live."