Alvin Toffler - The futurists (1972)
Info
Margaret Mead, R. Buckminster Fuller, Alvin Toffler, and Marshall McLuhan discuss the future of civilization.
Mumford Enid - Redesigning human systems (2002)
Info
Organizational change is becoming increasingly complex, challenging and difficult to handle as technology advances. And there is a need to discuss how it can be both more effectively managed by large and small organizations, while at the same time the strategies for changes are based on ethical notions of democracy and participation. Redesigning Human Systems assists those interested in and responsible for the management of major change within organizations, and provides the theories and values that should be adhered to in order to achieve that change successfully and effectively.
David C. Korten - The Great Turning From Empire to Earth Community (2007)
Info
In his classic international bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten exposed the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy and helped spark a global resistance movement. Now, he shows that the problem runs deeper than corporate domination—with far greater consequences.
Here, Korten argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely one manifestation of what he calls “Empire”: the organization of society through hierarchy and violence that has largely held sway for the past 5,000 years. Empire has always resulted in misery for the many and fortune for the few, but now it threatens the very future of humanity. Korten points to global terrorism, climate change, and rising poverty as just a few of the signs that the burdens of Empire now exceed what people and planet will bear.
The Great Turning traces the roots of Empire to ancient times and charts the long evolution of its favored instruments of control, from monarchies and bureaucracies to the transnational institutions of the global economy. Korten also tells the parallel story of the attempt to develop a democratic alternative to Empire, beginning in Athens and continuing with the founding of the United States of America. But this remains an unfinished project—Korten documents how elitists with an imperial agenda have consistently sought to undermine the bold and inspiring “American experiment,“ beginning in the earliest days of the republic and continuing to the present day.
Empire is not inevitable, not the natural order of things—we can turn away from it. Korten draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that “Earth Community”—a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership—is indeed possible. And he details a grassroots strategy for beginning the momentous turning toward a future of as-yet-unrealized human potential. The Great Turning illuminates our current predicament, provides a framework for grasping the potential of this historic moment, and shows us how to take action for the future of our planet, our communities, and ourselves.
Buckminster Fuller - Utopia or oblivion the prospects for humanity (1963)
Info
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. For more than five decades, he set forth his comprehensive perspective on the world’s problems in numerous essays, which offer an illuminating insight into the intellectual universe of this renaissance man. These texts remain surprisingly topical even today, decades after their initial publication.
Buckminster Fuller - Critical path (1982)
Info
R. Buckminster Fuller is regarded as one of the most important figures of the 20th century, renowned for his achievements as an inventor, designer, architect, philosopher, mathematician, and dogged individualist. Perhaps best remembered for the Geodesic Dome and the term "Spaceship Earth," his work and his writings have had a profound impact on modern life and thought.
Critical Path is Fuller's master work--the summing up of a lifetime's thought and concern--as urgent and relevant as it was upon its first publication in 1981. Critical Path details how humanity found itself in its current situation--at the limits of the planet's natural resources and facing political, economic, environmental, and ethical crises.
The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future.
Jonas Salk - Reactions To Influenza Virus Vaccines (1947)
Abstract
In Dr. Curphey's article in The Journal, April 12, concerning a fatal reaction to influenza virus vaccine he has apparently utilized the occurrence of a fatal case in a 3 1/2 year old child to emphasize the work of Ratner and Untracht (The Journal, Dec. 14, 1946, p. 899) regarding the advisability of determining the existence of egg allergy before using vaccines of egg origin.There are so many features about Dr. Curphey's case that are not compatible with an allergic reaction that one might question, as Dr. Curphey has done, the mechanism he emphasized as probably responsible for the course of events observed. If, as seems possible, the reaction that occurred was not due to egg allergy, the results of a skin test would not have provided information that could have prevented the fatal reaction. Therefore I should like to take the opportunity to call attention.
Ervin Laszlo - Vision 2020: reordering chaos for global survival (1994)
Info
This revised edition of the classic text of the period provides both the student and the specialist with an informative account of post-Roman English society.
Pitirim A. Sorokin - Social and Cultural Dynamics (1957)
Info
This classic work is a revised and abridged version, in a single volume, of the work which more than any other catapulted Pitirim Sorokin into being one of the most famed figures of twentieth-century sociology. Its original publication occurred before World War II. This revised version, written some twenty years later, reflects a postwar environment. Earlier than most, Sorokin took the consequences of the breakdown of colonialism into account in discussing the renaissance of the great cultures of African and Asian civilization. Other than perhaps F.S.C. Northrop, no individual better incorporated the new role of the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic peoples in this postwar world.
Sorokin came to view social and cultural dynamics in terms of three major processes: a major shift of mankind's creative center from Europe to the Pacific; a progressive disintegration of the sensate culture; and finally the first blush of the emergence and growth of a new idealistic sociocultural order. This volume is perhaps most famous for revealing Sorokin's remarkable efforts to understand the relationship of war and peace to the process of social and political change. Contrary to received wisdom, he shows that the magnitude and depth of war grows in periods of social, cultural, and territorial expansion by the nation. In short, war is just as often a function of development as it is of social decay.
Mark Wollaeger - Modernism, media & propaganda: British narrative 1900-1945 (2006)
Info
Though often defined as having opposite aims, means, and effects, modernism and modern propaganda developed at the same time and influenced each other in surprising ways. The professional propagandist emerged as one kind of information specialist, the modernist writer as another. Britain was particularly important to this double history. By secretly hiring well-known writers and intellectuals to write for the government and by exploiting their control of new global information systems, the British in World War I invented a new template for the manipulation of information that remains with us to this day. Making a persuasive case for the importance of understanding modernism in the context of the history of modern propaganda, Modernism, Media, and Propaganda also helps explain the origins of today’s highly propagandized world.
Modernism, Media, and Propaganda integrates new archival research with fresh interpretations of British fiction and film to provide a comprehensive cultural history of the relationship between modernism and propaganda in Britain during the first half of the twentieth century. From works by Joseph Conrad to propaganda films by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, Mark Wollaeger traces the transition from literary to cinematic propaganda while offering compelling close readings of major fiction by Virginia Woolf, Ford Madox Ford, and James Joyce.
Nick Bostrom - The Transhumanist FAQ (2014)
Abstract
Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase. We formally define it as follows:- 1.
The intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally improving the human condition through applied reason, especially by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.- 2.
The study of the ramifications, promises, and potential dangers of technologies that will enable us to overcome fundamental human limitations, and the related study of the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies.
H+Pedia - Transhumanist FAQ Version 3
The Transhumanist FAQ was developed in the mid-1990s and in 1998 became a formal FAQ through the inspirational work of transhumanists, including Alexander Chislenko, Max More, Anders Sandberg, Natasha Vita-More, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Arjen Kamphius, and many others. Several people contributed to the definition of transhumanism, which was originated by Max More. Greg Burch, David Pearce, Kathryn Aegis, and Anders Sandberg kindly offered extensive editorial comments. The presentation in the cryonics section was, and still is, directly inspired by an article by Ralph Merkle. Ideas, criticisms, questions, phrases, and sentences to the original version were contributed by (in alphabetical order): Kathryn Aegis, Alex (intech@intsar.com), Brent Allsop, Brian Atkins, Scott Badger, Doug Bailey, Harmony Baldwin, Damien Broderick, Greg Burch, David Cary, John K Clark, Dan Clemensen, Damon Davis, Jeff Dee, Jean-Michel Delhotel, Dylan Evans, EvMick@aol.com, Daniel Fabulich, Frank Forman, Robin Hanson, Andrew Hennessey, Tony Hollick, Joe Jenkins, William John, Michelle Jones, Arjen Kamphius, Henri Kluytmans, Eugene Leitl, Michael Lorrey, mark@unicorn.com, Peter C. McCluskey, Erik Moeller, J. R. Molloy, Max More, Bryan Moss, Harvey Newstrom, Michael Nielsen, John S. Novak III, Dalibor van den Otter, David Pearce, pilgrim@cyberdude.com, Thom Quinn, Anders Sandberg, Wesley R. Schwein, Shakehip@aol.com, Allen Smith, Geoff Smith, Randy Smith, Dennis Stevens, Derek Strong, Remi Sussan, Natasha Vita-More, Michael Wiik, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and zebo@pro-ns.net
Jonas Salk - Merging Intuition and Reason (1983)
(the photograph above is not affiliated with the article)
Herman Kahn - The emerging Japanese superstate: Challenge and response (1971)
Review
"For The Japanese Economy WWII was unquestionably a disaster of the first magnitude." - Kahn
This quote from Herman Kahn's book clearly sums up and emphasizes a book full of solid information. Whether for casual reading on Japan or a research paper, Kahn delivers strong, decisive opinions on the matter. I used it for a research paper on Japan's economy and found it extremely useful. Again, it is also a very interesting and well-worded peice of literature. I recommend it to all.
ERIC Archive - Strategic Goals for 2000
This is the 2000-2005 strategic plan at El Centro College (Texas). It discusses the college's mission, vision, and core values, and provides information on goals and success indicators. Goals include: (1) preparing students for careers and for transfer to four-year institutions (2) providing quality continuing/workforce education to enrich students' lives and upgrading their occupational skills; (3) offering basic literacy and developmental education; (4) implementing new technology that supports the teaching and learning environment; (5) having a student body that reflects the demographic characteristics of the Dallas county adult population; (6) creating a climate that affirms cultural diversity; (7) partnering with business, industry, and governmental entities; (8) providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a global community; (9) developing programs of education and training that are adaptive to change; (10) maintaining the campus facilities to ensure that the physical environment is conducive to effective teaching and learning; (11) measuring instruction, recruitment, retention, learning outcomes, and college services and using the results for improvement; and (12) effectively utilizing allocated financial resources and pursuing opportunities to obtain additional resources. The report describes the environmental scan component of the planning process, provides an annual planning calendar, and discusses specific objectives. The appendix lists the college staff, offices, and committees responsible for developing the strategic plan. (MKF)
Dicks, Henry Victor - Licensed mass murder; a socio-psychological study of some SS killers (1972)
Info
Study based on first-hand observations from interviews with former members of the SS. The Columbus Centre Series.
Brock Ghisholm - Prescription for survival (1957)
About
Looks at the issue of overall health and survival as a person's ability to function wholly in all circumstances- physical, mental, and social.
Carl Gustav Jung - Analytical Psychology Its Theory and Practice (Tavistock, 1970)
Review
"... these lectures provide an extremely clear, readable, and at times amusing exposition of Jung's theories. In them Jung not only describes his views on the structure of the mind, giving lucid accounts of his psychological types, of the personal and collective unconscious and of archetypes, but also explains vividly his techniques of dream analysis and active imagination and the role played by transference in analytic therapy."
-- Charles Rycroft, The New York Review of Books
Francis Fukuyama - State-Building Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (2004)
Segment
The state is an ancient human institution dating back some 10,000 years to the first agricultural societies that sprang up in Mesopotamia. In China a state with a highly trained bureaucracy has existed for thousands of years. In Europe the modern state, deploying large armies, taxation powers, and a centralized bureaucracy that could exercise sovereign authority over a large territory, is much more recent, dating back four or five hundred years to the consolidation of the French, Spanish, and Swedish monarchies. The rise of these states, with their ability to provide order, security, law, and property rights, was what made...
Info
In 2020, areas of particular importance for technology trends will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology. The authors of this report assessed a sample of 29 countries across the spectrum of scientific advancement (low to high) with respect to their ability to acquire and implement 16 key technology applications (e.g., cheap solar energy, rural wireless communications, genetically modified crops). The study’s major conclusions are that scientifically advanced countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan will be able to implement all key technology applications evaluated; countries that are not scientifically advanced will have to develop significant capacity and motivation before barriers to technology implementation can be overcome; and public policy issues in certain areas will engender public debate and strongly influence technology implementation.
Erich Jantsch - Enterprise and environment (1973)
Info
This paper is the text of a presentation made at the 3rd International Management Symposium at the St. Gall Business School, May 1972.
Jonas Salk & Bruce J. West - Complexity, organization and uncertainty (1987)
Abstract
We discuss a strategy for understanding some of the observed relationships between complexity, organization, and uncertainty. The approach is phenomenological and emphasizes the basically discontinuous, irregular, and uncertain aspects of sociobiological systems. Much of the discussion is motivated by the observed inverse power-laws that arise in a great many data sets, e.g. Lotka's law in sociology, Pareto's law in economics, and Zipf's law in linguistics, and concludes that even the simplest of sociobiological systems elude the deterministic description of the physical sciences. It is conjectured that the clustering property implicit in such power-law behaviour may capture a ‘deep’ property of sociobiological systems, including perhaps the observed intermittency in speciation.
NewScientist - Julian Huxley: How can Man improve Man (2006)
Info:
Sir Julian Huxley believes human performance can be improved with the help of “positive eugenics”.
Robert Jungk - The big machine (1969)
Info:
The story of the 'atom-smasher'- the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the Scientists who run it.
Dennis M. Bushnell - The Future of Undersea Warfare: The Shape of Things to Come (2001)
Info:
Since the 1950s, when more than 50 percent of the nation's work force became engaged in some type of "information-intensive," activity, the United States (and the world) have been in the midst of an unprecedented Technological Revolution, currently centered around Information, Biological, and Nanoscale technologies. These technologies are all pushing the frontiers of the miniscule in a synergistic "feeding frenzy" among each other, and are causing tremendous changes in all areas of human endeavor. One of these areas is warfare. The character of these new technologies is altering both the context of potential conflicts and the diversity, effectiveness, survivability, and affordability of the techniques and material applicable to waging war.
John B. Calhoun - Population Density and Social Pathology (1962)
When a population of laboratory rats is allowed to increase in a confined space, the rats develop acutely abnormal patterns of behavior that can even lead to the extinction of the population.
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)