Lily E Kay & Rockefeller Foundation - The Molecular Vision Of Life (Cal-Tech Molecular Biology, 1993)

 

Book Description 

 

This fascinating study examines the rise of American molecular biology to disciplinary dominance, focusing on the period between 1930 and the elucidation of DNA structure in the mid 1950s. Research undertaken during this period, with its focus on genetic structure and function, endowed scientists with then unprecedented power over life. By viewing the new biology as both a scientific and cultural enterprise, Lily E. Kay shows that the growth of molecular biology was a result of systematic efforts by key scientists and their sponsors to direct the development of biological research toward a shared vision of science and society. She analyzes the motivations and mechanisms empowering this vision by focusing on two key institutions: Caltech and its sponsor, the Rockefeller Foundation. Her study explores a number of vital, sometimes controversial topics, among them the role of private power centers in shaping scientific agenda, and the political dimensions of "pure" research. It also advances a sobering argument: the cognitive and social groundwork for genetic engineering and human genome projects was laid by the American architects of molecular biology during these early decades of the project. This book will be of interest to molecular biologists, historians, sociologists, and the general reader alike.

 

Introduction
Molecular Biology (A New Biology?),
Rockefeller Foundation: Knowledge and Cultural Hegemony,
Caltech: Engineering and Consensus, Molecular Vision of Life
 

1. "Social Control": Rockefeller Foundation's Agenda in the Human Sciences, 1913-1933
Salvation through Experts,
Taming the Savage,
Toward a "New Science of Man"

2. Technological Frontier: Southern California and the Emergence of Life Science at Caltech
Machine in the Pacific Garden, 1900-1930,
The Cooperative Ideal: Toward a Life Science at Caltech
 

3. Visions and Realities: The Biology Division in the Morgan Era
Morgan and the New Biology: A Problem of Service Role,
Contradictory Elements,
Interlude I. Protein Paradigm,
Heredity and the Protein View of Life,
Chemistry of Proteins during the 1930s: Theories and Technologies 

4. From Flies to Molecules: Physiological Genetics During Morgan Era
Jack Schultz: A Bridge to the Phenotype,
Beadle, Ephrussi, and the Physiology of Gene Action,
The Riddle of Life: Max Delbriick and Phage Genetics,
Nascent Trends: Toward Giant Protein Molecules,
 

5. Convergence of Goals: From Physical Chemistry to Bio-Organic
Chemistry, 1930-1940
Gates Chemical Laboratory, 1930,
Vital Processes: Pauling and Weaver,
Crellin Laboratory: Nascent Trends,
 

6. Spoils of War: Immunochemistry and Serological Genetics, 1940-1945
Terra Incognita: Shift to Immunology,
Problem of Antibody Synthesis,
Science at War,
Terra Firma: 1944-1945

7. Microorganisms and Macromanagement: Beadle's Return to Caltech
New Biological System,
Selling Pure Science in Wartime,
Beadle's Return to Caltech,
Interlude II. At a Crossroads: Shaping of Postwar Science,
Rockefeller Foundation and the New World Order,
Designing "Big Science": Caltech's "Magnificent Plan"

8. Molecular Empire (1946-1953)
Life in a Black Box: The Rise of Delbriick's Phage School,
Key Team Member: Delbriick and the Phage Cult,
Protein Victory, Pure and Applied,
Epilogue
Paradigm Lost? From Nucleoproteins to DNA,

Conclusion
Key to Archival Sources,
Index

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph F. Coates, John B. Mahaffie, and Andy Hines - 2025, Scenarios of US and Global Society Reshaped by Science and Technology (1997)

Book Description

 

Published in 1997. Written in the form of a history book, 2025 is an engaging retrospective of the years 1990-2025. Examining trends in medicine, housing, food service, economics, entertainment, industry, education, and other key aspects of society, this book paints a fascinating picture of the future.

Thorough, upbeat, and very readable, 2025 is the remarkable result of five years compiling and evaluating global and regional forecasts in many different disciplines. The authors offer a well-balanced, integrated forecast of how science and technology will affect the United States and the rest of the world over the next three decades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Glover - What Sort of People Should There Be? (1984)

Book Description

This was the first philosophical book on the ethics of genetic choices, and (in its second half) the first book on what is now called “neuroethics”: questions about mood-changing drugs, about inhabiting virtual realities, and about the use of brain-scanning techniques to access the contents of people’s minds. "This book is about some questions to do with the future of mankind. The questions have been selected on two grounds. They arise out of scientific developments whose beginnings we can already see, such as genetic engineering and behaviour control. And they involve fundamental values: these technologies may change the central framework of human life. The book is intended as a contribution, not to prediction, but to a discussion of what sort of future we should try to bring about... The intention is to describe possibilities in ways that separate out different values, and to say, "these values, rather than those, are what matter, aren't they?" Of course, in a way I hope for the answer "yes". But, because people have different outlooks, the answer will quite often be "no". My hope is that those who answer "no" will have been helped to see more clearly what it is they do not believe, and perhaps as a result to work out more fully what they do believe." 

(Jonathan Glover)

 

Chapters 

 

Chapter 1 Introduction
1. The Questions
2. The Approach
Part One: Genes

Chapter 2 Questions about Some Uses of Genetic Eogineeling
1. Avoiding the Debate about Genes and the Environment
2. Methods of Changing the Genetic Composition of Future
Generations
3. The PositineNegative Dishnction
4. The View That Overall Improvement is Unllkeiy or Impossible
5. The Pamily and Our Descendants
6. Cloning
7. Crossing Species Baundaries
8. Risks and Mistakes
9. The Objections So Par

Chapter 3 Decisions
1. Not Playing God
2. The Genetic Supermarket
3. AMixedSystem
4. Values
5. Changing Human Nature 

Part Two: Thought Experiments

 
Chapter 4 Transparency
1. Monitoring Thoughts
2. Transparency in a Pree Community 

3. Relationships
4. Identity and Individuality
5. The Two Perspectives 

Chapter 5 Mood
1. The Objection to Social Quietism
2. Appropriateness
3. The Superdrug
Chapter 6 Control
1. Some Questions
2. Abuse by the Authorities
3. Benevolent Control by the Authorities
4. Voluntary Submission to Democratically Programmed Control
5. A Closed Society
6. Identity
7. Self-ModEccation
8. Conclusions 

Chapter 7 Dreams ( I )
1. The Experience Machine
2. Some Primitive Objections
3. Internal and External Perspectives
4. Other People
5. Activity
6. Identity Objectibns
7. TheKantian Objection
8. Will It SNI Be MC?
9. Personal Characteristics 

Chapter 8 Dreams (11)
1. The Dreamworld
2. Is thehamworld Real?
3. Deception. and What We Want
4. The Objection That the Dreamworld is Mind-Centred
5. The Mind-Dependence View
6. Claustrophobia

Chapter 9 Work
1. Cooperation and Expression
2. The Journey, Not the Anival
3. ResultsandReplacement
4. Circles 

5. NegativeCircles 

6. System
7. Transcending the Bcanomic Problem
2. Contact & variety
3. The Development of Consciousness
4. Beyond Consewatism about Human Nature
 

Part Three: Values

 
Chapter 11 Generations
1. StahandHenen
2. The Quality Principle
3. Some Views Incompatible with the Equalitg Principle
4. Practical Cons'aints on the Equality Principle
5. AgainstUtapias
6. In Defence of Interoention
7. A Possible Cadet 

Chapter 12 Adjustment
1. Quality adth e Satisfaction of Desires
2. Autonomy
3. Neutrality
4. The Human Zoo 

Chapter 13 Perspectives
1. lixternal Perspectives
2. Quality
3. Bias
4. Archimedes and Neurath 

Chapter 14 Some Conclusions
1. Transcending Intellectual Limitations
2. Emotional andImaginative Urnitations
3. Values and Dangers
4. Consciousness 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John D. Marks & Victor Marchetti - The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence (1974)

 

Book Description 

 

The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, the 1974 book by former Central Intelligence Agency employee Victor Marchetti and former State Department employee John D. Marks, was the first publication to be censored by the U.S. government prior to publication. Legal issues pitted the government’s interest in protecting national security against the right of former government employees and publishers to communicate classified or otherwise sensitive information.

 

Chapters

Introduction by Melvin L. Wulf

PART ONE
1. The Cult of Intelligence
2. The Clandestine Theory
3. The CIA and the Intelligence Community

PART TWO
4. Special Operations
5. Proprietary Organizations
6. Propaganda and Disinformation
7. Espionage and Counterespionage

PART THREE
8. The Clandestine Mentality
9. Intelligence and Policy

10. Controlling the CIA
11. Conclusions

Appendix: The Bissell Philosophy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herman Kahn, William Brown & Léon Martel - The next 200 Years: A Scenario for America and the World (1976)

 

Publisher's Synopsis

A progress report on the Hudson Institute's studies in population growth, economic development, energy, resources, food, and the environment, presenting an affirmative projection of and strategy for future abundance and affluence.

 

Chapters 

 

I. INTRODUCTION: PUTTING GROWTH IN PERSPECTIVE 

The Current Malaise
The Hudson Study and the American Bicentennial
Four Characteristic Views of Two Basic Images of the Earth-Centered Perspective
Watersheds of History 

II. TURNING POINTS IN THE GROWTH OF POPULATION AND PRODUCT 

Population in Perspective The Demographic Transition
Economic Growth, Yesterday and Today
The Economic Transition
GNP per Capita—The Transitions Combined

HI. ENERGY: EXHAUSTIBLE TO INEXHAUSTIBLE 

Future Demand
Fossil Fuels
Fission Power
The Transition to Long-Term Sources
Solar Energy
Geothermal Energy
Nuclear Fusion
Energy Systems of the 22nd Century
Efficient Use of Energy

IV. RAW MATERIALS: THE END OF THE BEGINNING 

The Long-Term Perspective for Resources
Near-Term Import Dependence
Mutual Dependence
Future Long-Term World Demand and Supplies

V. FOOD: SUPPLYING DEMAND 

Future Directions in Food Production
Nutritional Requirements
Increasing Food Production: Myths and Realities
Scenarios for the Next 200 Years
The Special Problem of India

VI. THE NEAR-TERM ENVIRONMENT: CLEAN AIR, CLEAR WATER AND AESTHETIC
LANDSCAPES 

A Perspective on the Current Issues
Some Consequences of Environmental Regulation
Environmental Economics
Technology: Force for Good or Evil?
Land-Use Issues
Future Environmental Progress

 

VII. THE DIFFICULT LONG-TERM ENVIRONMENT: MAINTAINING EARTH'S FRAGILE ENVELOPE 

Technology and the Faustian Bargain
Technological Innovation: Mistakes of Omission and
Commission
The Difficult Issues: Possibilities for Catastrophe

VIIL FROM PRESENT TO FUTURE: THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION TO A POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY 

Basic Current Directions and Context
The Erosion of Traditional Societal Levers
How Safe Will the World Be?
Transitional Problems of Morale, Attitudes and
the Quality of Life
How Likely Are Democracy and World Government?

IX. THE TASKS AHEAD 

The First Task: A Realistic Image of the Future
Overcoming the Known Problems of the Near Term
Coping with the Unknown Problems of the Long
Term
Thinking About the Postindustrial Era

APPENDIX: TWO 

Kinds of Issues Facing Mankind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Herman Kahn and Evan Jones - On Thermonuclear War (1960)

Book Description

 

On Thermonuclear War was controversial when originally published and remains so today. It is iconoclastic, crosses disciplinary boundaries, and finally it is calm and compellingly reasonable. The book was widely read on both sides of the Iron Curtain and the result was serious revision in both Western and Soviet strategy and doctrine. As a result, both sides were better able to avoid disaster during the Cold War.

The strategic concepts still apply: defense, local animosities, and the usual balance-of-power issues are still very much with us. Kahn's stated purpose in writing this book was simply: "avoiding disaster and buying time, without specifying the use of this time." By the late 1950s, with both sides H-bomb-armed, reason and time were in short supply.

Kahn, a military analyst at Rand since 1948, understood that a defense based only on thermonuclear arnaments was inconceivable, morally questionable, and not credible.The book was the first to make sense of nuclear weapons. Originally created from a series of lectures, it provides insight into how policymakers consider such issues. One may agree with Kahn or disagree with him on specific issues, but he clearly defined the terrain of the argument. He also looks at other weapons of mass destruction such as biological and chemical, and the history of their use.

The Cold War is over, but the nuclear genie is out of the bottle, and the lessons and principles developed in On Thermonuclear War apply as much to today's China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as they did to the Soviets.

 

Chapters 

 

PART I THREE LECTURES 

LECTURE I. THE NATURE AND FEASIBILITY OF THERMONUCLEAR WAR

I. Alternative National Strategies 

II. Will the Survivors Envy the Dead? In' Neither Oblivion nor Surrender LECTURE 

II. THE FORMULATION AND TESTING OF OBJECTIVES AND PLANS 

IV. Conflicting Objectives 

V. Stresses and Strains 

Vi. Additional Remarks on the Military Problems 

LECTURE III. WORLD WAR 

I. THROUGHWORLD WAR

Vii. The Role of Analysis 

VIIl. The Real Past ix' The Hypothetical Past 

X. Present and Future 

Xi. Recapitulation 

XII. The Problem Must Be Taken Seriously 

PART II APPENDICES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erik Davis - Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (2015)

Book Description

 

TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers

How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication.

Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Schmidt & Jared Cohen - The New Digital Age: Reshaping The Future of People, Nations and Business (2013)

 

Book Description 

In an unparalleled collaboration, two leading global thinkers in technology and foreign affairs give us their widely anticipated, transformational vision of the future: a world where everyone is connected—a world full of challenges and benefits that are ours to meet and to harness.

Eric Schmidt is one of Silicon Valley’s great leaders, having taken Google from a small startup to one of the world’s most influential companies. Jared Cohen is the director of Google Ideas and a former adviser to secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. With their combined knowledge and experiences, the authors are uniquely positioned to take on some of the toughest questions about our future: Who will be more powerful in the future, the citizen or the state? Will technology make terrorism easier or harder to carry out? What is the relationship between privacy and security, and how much will we have to give up to be part of the new digital age?

In this groundbreaking book, Schmidt and Cohen combine observation and insight to outline the promise and peril awaiting us in the coming decades. At once pragmatic and inspirational, this is a forward-thinking account of where our world is headed and what this means for people, states and businesses.

With the confidence and clarity of visionaries, Schmidt and Cohen illustrate just how much we have to look forward to—and beware of—as the greatest information and technology revolution in human history continues to evolve. On individual, community and state levels, across every geographical and socioeconomic spectrum, they reveal the dramatic developments—good and bad—that will transform both our everyday lives and our understanding of self and society, as technology advances and our virtual identities become more and more fundamentally real.

As Schmidt and Cohen’s nuanced vision of the near future unfolds, an urban professional takes his driverless car to work, attends meetings via hologram and dispenses housekeeping robots by voice; a Congolese fisherwoman uses her smart phone to monitor market demand and coordinate sales (saving on costly refrigeration and preventing overfishing); the potential arises for “virtual statehood” and “Internet asylum” to liberate political dissidents and oppressed minorities, but also for tech-savvy autocracies (and perhaps democracies) to exploit their citizens’ mobile devices for ever more ubiquitous surveillance. Along the way, we meet a cadre of international figures—including Julian Assange—who explain their own visions of our technology-saturated future.

Inspiring, provocative and absorbing, The New Digital Age is a brilliant analysis of how our hyper-connected world will soon look, from two of our most prescient and informed public thinkers.

 

Chapters

CHAPTER 1 Our Future Selves
CHAPTER 2 The Future of Identity, Citizenship and Reporting
CHAPTER 3 The Future of States
CHAPTER 4 The Future of Revolution
CHAPTER 5 The Future of Terrorism
CHAPTER 6 The Future oF Conflict, Combat and Intervention
CHAPTER 7 The Future of Reconstruction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jose Delgado - Physical Control of the Mind (1969)

Book Description

Physical control of the mind by direct manipulation of the brain is a novel event in human history. In this volume, Dr. Jose M. R. Delgado describes his pioneering work in implanting electrodes in the brains of cats, monkeys, and men. Through electrical stimulation of specific cerebral structures, Delgado demonstrates how movements can be induced by radio command, hostility may appear or disappear, social hierarchy can be modified, sexual behavior may be changed, and memory, emotions, and the thinking process may be influenced by remote control.

The mind is no longer unreachable, and may be the subject of experimental investigations. According to Delgado, we need to reorient the aims of civilization to restore a balance between its physical and psychological evolution. Our present mechanized society is dangerously self-perpetuating, and should be "psychocivilized" in order to develop wiser minds, to intelligently control our awesome technological advances.

Dr. Delgado believes mankind’s primary objective should be “not the development of machines, but of man himself.” He writes lucidly about his work, putting it into the context of what is known about the mind and the brain, and exploring long-range ethical and social implications of his discoveries. Despite the ongoing controversy over his work, the result is an exceedingly important and provocative book.

Jose M. R. Delgado was born in Ronda, Spain, and received his medical training at Madrid University, where he was Associate Professor of Physiology until 1950, when he came to Yale University to work with Dr. John Fulton. He became Professor of Physiology at Yale, where he developed techniques for electrical and chemical stimulation of the brain. He published more than 200 scientific papers, and became perhaps the most notorious "mind control" researcher in the history of neuro-behavioral research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donald G. Reid - A New World-System From Chaos to Sustainability (2020)

Book Description (Routledge)

 

A New World-System: From Chaos to Sustainability examines the present crisis in the social and ecological environment that is producing profound, potentially catastrophic challenges to the planet and humanity and outlines a process for moving forward to address these critical issues.

This book is a cautionary interpretation of the present and vision for the future. Unlike other books on this or allied subjects that are focused singularly, Part 1 surveys the five major threats facing humanity today: climate change, inequality and poverty, new technologies, migration, and globalization. It approaches the challenge of integrating these phenomena into a global picture from a systems perspective rather than taking a purely reductionist approach to understanding what is occurring in the world today. Part 2 moves from identifying the problems to solving them, with chapters examining the ability of the present world-system to address these issues and outlining a process for action. The book concludes by discussing what could follow capitalism as a social organizing strategy and, perhaps more importantly, the consequences to the planet if we do not construct a new world-system.

This book is essential reading for students and scholars of sustainable development, climate change, environmental studies, rural and urban planning, environmental psychology, political economy, sociology, social policy, leisure studies, and environmental politics. More broadly, it is a vital resource for all those interested in building a sustainable society.

Chapters

 

Part 1 Forces Driving Change 

Chapter 1 Introduction: Humanity’s Next Test 

Chapter 2 Climate Change: The Elephant in the Room  

Chapter 3 Technology: The Trojan Horse 

Chapter 4 Poverty: The Great Unequalizer 

Chapter 5 Globalization: The Eye of the Storm  

Chapter 6 Migration: The Clash of Civilizations   

 

Part 2 Processes of Change  

Chapter 7 Recent Change Experiments 

Chapter 8 The Context for Social Change 

Chapter 9 Theories of Change 

Chapter 10 Planning for 

Change Chapter 11 Meeting the Challenge: From Chaos to Sustainability

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis Wheatley - The Devil and all his works (1971)

Book Description

A lifetime of reading and research lies behind Dennis Wheatley's world famous Black Magic and Occult novels.

Now, in this absorbing, lavishly illustrated book he describes and sums up his findings and his conclusions.

Throughout history the elemental principles of Good and Evil, of Light and Darkness have interacted and struggled for domination. The evidence of invisible influences on mankind, hypnosis, faith-healing, telepathy, is plentiful. The studies of astrology, numerology, palmistry, alchemy and the Cabala are described. Here is the history of religion and magic among the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Incas, down to the present day.

Here also are described the outward manifestations of those beliefs: human sacrifice, the mysteries of the Pyramids, the rituals of the Druids, witches' sabbaths, the perverted frenzies of the Black Mass, the conjuring up of the spirits of the dead.

The Devil and All His Works, which includes 48 pages of colour plates, 167 black and white illustrations and 6 maps, is probably the most complete, most graphic survey of the forces of Darkness ever published.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin J. Mason - The 2030 Spike:  Countdown to Global Catastrophe (2003)

Book Description (Routledge)

The clock is relentlessly ticking! Our world teeters on a knife-edge between a peaceful and prosperous future for all, and a dark winter of death and destruction that threatens to smother the light of civilization. Within 30 years, in the 2030 decade, six powerful 'drivers' will converge with unprecedented force in a statistical spike that could tear humanity apart and plunge the world into a new Dark Age. Depleted fuel supplies, massive population growth, poverty, global climate change, famine, growing water shortages and international lawlessness are on a crash course with potentially catastrophic consequences. In the face of both doomsaying and denial over the state of our world, Colin Mason cuts through the rhetoric and reams of conflicting data to muster the evidence to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is, and our possible futures. Ultimately his message is clear; we must act decisively, collectively and immediately to alter the trajectory of humanity away from catastrophe. Offering over 100 priorities for immediate action, The 2030 Spike serves as a guidebook for humanity through the treacherous minefields and wastelands ahead to a bright, peaceful and prosperous future in which all humans have the opportunity to thrive and build a better civilization. This book is powerful and essential reading for all people concerned with the future of humanity and planet earth. 

 

Chapters

 

Part One: Crises Mode - The Drivers 

* Running out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crunch * Population and Poverty * Climate: Too Hot or Too Cold? * Famines: Food and Water * One World? * The Fourth Horsemen * 

 

Part Two: Direction 

* Which Way Science? * In the Genes: New Plants - and People? * The Values of the Sea * Multinationals: Good Business or Bad? * The Trouble with Money * 

 

Part Three: Upgrading the Individual - The Pursuit of Happiness 

* Love, Family and Freedom * Habitat: The Dilemma of the Cities * Making Education Work * Health and Wealth * Religion: The Cement of Society * 

 

Part Four: The New Society? 

* The Mechanics of Change * Automation and Employment * Travelling Less? * Working Online * The Information Overload * The Toxic Culture * Running the Show * Conclusions: World to Come

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colin J. Mason - A Short History of the Future: Surviving the 2030 Spike (2006)

Book Description (Routledge)

Has the future a future? Are we bringing history to an end? Observing any one of several individual but critical trends suggests that, without rapid and positive action, history may have only a very short way to run. Whether it is the growth of world population, of greenhouse gas concentrations and the accelerating rate of climate change, the running down of oil and natural gas reserves, growing shortages of fresh water for agriculture, industry and domestic use, or the increasing difficulty in controlling epidemic diseases we are facing a mounting global crisis that will peak in less than a generation, around the year 2030. Taken together, these trends point to a potentially apocalyptic period, if not for the planet itself then certainly for human societies and for humankind. In this compelling book, and update to The 2030 Spike, Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins. The picture he paints is stark, and yet it is not bleak. Being forewarned, we are forearmed, and he draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals, and above all collectively, not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now. 

 

Chapters

 

PART I: IS THERE A CRISIS? 

* The Drivers * Running Out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crunch * Population and Poverty * Climate: How Long to Tipping Point? * Is There Enough Food and Water? * One World? * The Fourth Horseman * 

 

PART II: DIRECTIONS 

* Which Way Science? * In the Genes: New Plants - and People? * The Values of the Sea * Multinationals: Good Business or Bad? * The Trouble with Money * 

 

PART III: UPGRADING THE INDIVIDUAL 

* The Pursuit of Happiness * Love, Family and Freedom * Habitat: The Dilemma of the Cities * Making Education Work * Health and Wealth * Religion: The Cement of Society? * 

 

PART IV: THE NEW SOCIETY? 

* The Mechanics of Change * Automation and Employment * Travelling Less? * Working Online * The Information Overload * The Toxic Culture * Running the Show * Getting the World We Want

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Club Of Rome - The First Global Revolution (1991)

Book Description

Published 1991 – President Emeritus of the Club of Rome Alexander King and Secretary General Bertrand Schneider offer both a warning and an approach to a possible solution to world problems. Topics covered by this book include the need for the world to convert from a military to a civil economy, the recognition of the disastrous short-term effects of exploitation by First World countries of Third World poverty and need, and the containment of global warming: the need to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide, to encourage reforestation, to conserve traditional forms of energy and develop alternatives.

 

Chapters 

 
I. A Whirlwind of Change
II. Some Areas of Acute Concern
III. The International Mismanagement of the World Economy
IV. Intimations of Solidarity
V. The Vacuum
VI. The Human Malaise (Conclusion: The Challenge)
VII. The Three Immediacies
VIH. Governance and the Capacity to Govern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind (1974)

  

Book description

The message of this book is urgent and sobering: The earth’s interlocking resources- the global system of nature in which we all live- probably cannot support present rates of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even with advanced technology. In the summer of 1970, an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began a study of the implications of continued worldwide growth. They examined the five basic facts that determine and, in their interactions, ultimately limit growth on this planet- population increase, agricultural production, nonrenewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation. The MIT team fed data on these five factors into a global computer model and then tested the behavior of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine alternative patters for mankind’s future. THE LIMITS TO GROWTH is the non-technical report of their findings. The book contains a message of hope, as well: Man can create a society in which he can live indefinitely on earth if he imposes limits on himself and his productions of material goods to achieve a state of global equilibrium with population and production in carefully selected balance. “This book raises life-and-death questions that confront mankind as it strives for achievement of a prosperous and equitable society.” 

 

---Vernon E. Jordan, JR., executive director, National Urban League

 

 

Chapters 

 

- Introduction  

-  I The Nature of Exponential Growth

-  II The Limits of Exponential Growth  

-  III Growth in the World System  

-  IV Technology and the Limits to Growth page  

-  V The State of Global Equilibrium 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bertrand Russell - Sceptical Essays (1924)

 

Book Description (by Routledge)

 

'These propositions may seem mild, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revolutionize human life.'

With these words Bertrand Russell introduces what is indeed a revolutionary book. Taking as his starting-point the irrationality of the world, he offers by contrast something 'wildly paradoxical and subversive' - a belief that reason should determine human actions. Today, besieged as we are by the numbing onslaught of twenty-first-century capitalism, Russell's defence of scepticism and independence of mind is as timely as ever. In clear, engaging prose, he guides us through the key philosophical issues that affect our daily lives - freedom, happiness, emotions, ethics and beliefs - and offers no-nonsense advice.

Table of contents

 

1. Introduction: On the Value of Scepticism 

2. Dreams and Facts 

3. Is Science Superstitious? 

4. Can Men Be Rational? 

5. Philosophy in the Twentieth Century 

6. Machines and the Emotions 

7. Behavourism and Values 

8. Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness 

9. The Harm that Good Men Do 

10. The Recrudescence of Puritanism 

11. The Need for Political Scepticism 

12. Free Thought and Official Propaganda 

13. Freedom in Society 

14. Freedom Versus Authority in Education 

15. Psychology and Politics 

16. The Danger of Creed Wars 

17. Some Prospects: Cheerful and Otherwise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bertrand Russel - The Prospects Of Industrial Civilization (1923)

 

First published in 1923, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization is considered the most ambitious of Bertrand Russell's works on modern society. It offers a rare glimpse into often-ignored subtleties of his political thought and in it he argues that industrialism is a threat to human freedom, since it is fundamentally linked with nationalism. His proposal for one government for the whole world as the ultimate solution, along with his argument that the global village and prevailing political democracy should be its eventual results, is both provocative and thoroughly engaging.

 

- Routledge

 

 

Content / chapters:

 

1. Caused of Present Chaos 

2. Inherent Tendencies of Industrialism 

3. Industrialism and Private Property 

4. Interactions of Industrialism and Nationalism 

5. The Transition to Internationalism 

6. Socialism on Undeveloped Countries 

7. Socialism in Advanced Countries 

8. What Makes a Social System Good or Bad? 

9. Moral Standards and Social Well-Being 

10. The Sources of Power 

11. Education 

12. Economic Organisation and Mental Freedom