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Description and Contents |
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Across the globe, individuals and
organizations are taking a deeper look at the human species and
its relationship to the Earth and all other life. There is a
growing sense that humans are bringing life on Earth to an
evolutionary "tipping point" that will lead to our
transformation—or our extinction.
This recognition crosses all disciplinary,
social, political, and religious boundaries, making it clear
that these traditional boundaries no longer serve a maturing
humanity. At the brink of adulthood as a species, we must
understand our past and consider our future. We are charting a
new course into unknown territory. We are primordial stardust
come to consciousness, aware of our evolutionary past in deep
time. Will we treasure and nurture this precious gift of
awareness? Can it guide us as we attempt to chart our future
course?
Scientists, philosophers, economists,
educators, activists, artists, and business people consider such
vital questions and in their deliberations provide a broad vista
of the human and planetary conditions. Several important themes
emerge from these pages:
• Our impact on the living systems and
resources of our planet
• Our interconnectedness with everything
• The importance of community, relationships,
and wisdom
• The urgent need to address our daunting
reality and our future
• Our scientific cosmology’s capacity to
inform and guide us
While the chapters illuminate and explain the multitude of
challenges that face us, the book is full of hope, vision...and
solutions. It illuminates how we can draw on both science and
wisdom to create a sustainable future on a flourishing Earth. |
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CONTENTS
Contributors
The Flow of Ideas
Foreword: Scientific Cosmology, Cultural Wisdom, and
Questions - Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack
Preface: A Hopeful Vision for Challenging Times -
Cheryl Genet 25
Where Are We?
Time is Up! -
Duane Elgin
Climate Change - Peter M.J. Hess
Beginning Our Quest
1 An Introduction to Science, Wisdom, and the
Future - Russell M. Genet
Science, Cultural Evolutionary Forces, and a Flourishing Planet -
Russell M. Genet
2 The Way of Wisdom - Sheri Ritchlin
3 A Theory of Wisdom - Richard Hawley
Trowbridge
Part I Understanding Ourselves and Our Cultural
Evolution
4 Human Nature and Human Possibilities -
Riane Eisler
5 The Wisdom of Virtue::A Scientific
Exploration of Honesty, Humility, and Love - Linda K. Palmer
and Jack A. Palmer
An Introduction to the Concept of Sapience - George Mobus
6 The Sapient Brain: The Evolution of
Wisdom - George Mobus
7 Wisdom Therapy: Developing Wisdom
Sooner Rather Than Later and the Impact on Emotions - Shani
Robins
The Science of Song - Pauline Le Bel
8 Evolution Is More than Genetic
Determinism - Paul G. Fast
9 A Comparison of the Development of Life
on Earth and the Human Embryo - Paul G. Fast
10 Power and Restraint: The Question of Human Genetic
Engineering - Jack A. Palmer
11 Ganesh Baba’s Cycle of Synthesis:A Blend of
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science - Eve Baumohl Neuhaus
12 Eve, God, and the Quantum Age - Heather Mendel
Part II Changing Our Evolutionary Trajectory
13 New Ways of Living - Duane Elgin
Positive Psychology: Promise of a New Perspective - Jack A.
Palmer
14 Sing Two
Songs and Call Me in the Morning: Science and the Healing Power of Music
- Pauline Le Bel
15 Future Primal: A Politics for Evolving
Humanity - Louis G. Herman
16 Utopia and the Evolution of Wisdom -
Jean Belisle Lombardo
The Cosmic Adventure - Tom Lombardo
17 Vision for the Future: The Wisdom of a
Plant-Based Diet for Humans - Linda K. Palmer, Jack A. Palmer, and Nani
F. Palmer
18 The Politics of Wisdom in the Educative
Process - Florence Pittman Matusky
Applied Wisdom: Reducing Animal Suffering - Shani Robins
19 The Evolutionary Communion for Pioneering
Souls - Barbara Marx Hubbard
A Brief Story of Wheat - Linda Gibler
20 Critical Thinking and Wisdom: A Buddhist
Perspective - Robert Sachs
21 The Evolution of a Politician: Hawaii State
Senator Les Ihara’s Personal Journey of Integrity - Cheryl
Genet
22 The Global Sounding: Scientific and
Spiritual Guidelines for a Global Ethic and a Better World -
David Loye
Part III Making Corporations Sustainable
23 How to Lead a Transformation to a Sustainable
Enterprise…From the Middle - Bob Willard
24 Who Will Be the Rock Stars of Corporate
Sustainability? - Victoria L. Zelin
Sustainable Business Education - Dwight E. Collins
25 What Is the "Good Life" in a Finite World?
Engaging Chinese Scholars with a Pragmatic Approach to Economics - Ron
Nahser
26 Philosophical and Ethical Approaches to
Business and Sustainability:A Personal Perspective - Warren
W. Wolf
Holistic Management - Rob Rutherford
27 Making Third World Farming Sustainable: The
Wisdom of Fair Trade Solutions - Tom Neuhaus
28 Rwanda—Gorillas, Guerillas, and
Missionaries: Reconnecting Fractured Worlds--One by One -
William O’Toole
Carrying Capacity and Human Flourishing - Peter M.J. Hess
and Richard J. McDonald
29 Negotiating a Human Future: Evolution,
Population, and Ethics at the End of Affordable Oil - Peter
M.J. Hess
and Richard J. McDonald
Part IV Raising our Evolutionary Consciousness
30 A New Story for the Human Journey -
Duane Elgin
31 The Ecstasy of Awakening to Our Role in a
Living Universe - Keith Mesecher
32 Evolving catholics Evolving the
World: Love’s Unfolding Mystery - Alice MacDonald
33 Transition, Opportunity, Resilience, and
Celebrating: How Can We Move Through These Most Interesting Times? - Bob
Banner
Wisdom: The Highest Part of the Mind - Richard Hawley
Trowbridge
34 The Necessary Flow of Wisdom -
Josefina Burgos
35 A Space-Time Map of the Universe -
John A. Gowan
Utopia: The Ideal, the Perfect, and the Good - Jeanne
Belisle Lombardo
36 The Evolutionary Account of the Universe:A
Support for Behavioral Change Toward Sustainability - Dwight
E. Collins
37 Wisdom, Enlightenment, Science, and the
Future - Tom Lombardo
38 Living in Evolutionary Wisdom -
Michael Dowd
re:vision - a poem by Drew Dillenger
Index 417
Camera Icon denotes a short "snapshot" piece on a particular topic
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FLOW OF
IDEAS
Developed from epigrams devised to
capture the central ideas of each chapter
Where Are We?
Never before has the entire human family been
entrusted with the task of working together to imagine and consciously
build a sustainable and meaningful future.
Duane Elgin
Humanity is conducting an unprecedented and possibly
irreversible experiment on the gas composition of our atmosphere. Our
descendants will live with the consequences of this experiment for
centuries to come.
Peter Hess
Beginning Our Quest
...we may be in the position of knowing we are in
trouble, of knowing, ecologically, what needs to be done to avert
evolutionary disaster, but not knowing, culturally, how to solve such
political (cultural) problems. We see the crash coming, but we may not
know how to actually take our foot off the accelerator, let alone apply
the brakes.
Russell Genet
Our problem...is that positive cultural evolutionary
forces, such as scientific understanding and good will—which are
promoting individual flourishing and planetary sustainability—are
countered and could even be trumped by more powerful negative economic
and political cultural evolutionary forces.
Russell Genet
It seems at first as if wisdom is a thing we seach
for. We are seekers of wisdom on a quest. [But it is found] not in the
seeking
but in the seeing.
Sheri Ritchlin
The purpose of a theory is to provide a testable
claim: ...a theory provides a framework for practice. Conceptually, a
theory [of wisdom] orients understanding.
Richard Trowbridge
Part I Understanding Ourselves and Our Cultural
Evolution
Beneath the many differences in human societies
across time and space, cross-culturally and historically, are found two
basic possibilities for structuring institutions, relationships, and
beliefs—the configurations of the
partnership system
and the
domination system.
If we examine these configurations, we see a clearer picture of human
nature and human possibilities.
Riane Eisler
[A] life firmly grounded in virtue has the capacity
to flourish and to impact positively upon all life. Therefore, we are
wise to consider the significance of developing personal virtues in
relation to our efforts to establish sustainability.
Linda and Jack Palmer
A key motivation for wisdom research can be drawn
from this question: if we humans are so smart, and creative, why is the
world in the state that it is...?
George Mobus
Today many neuropsychologists are tackling
explanations of what part(s) of the brain are involved in what basic
behavioral productions, and this has thus far proved fruitful. We should
tackle sapience in the same way.
George Mobus
Wisdom Therapy involves developing skills across
[several] dimensions, whch leads to siginficant reductions in the
frequency, intensity, and duration of emotions such as anger, anxiety,
and depression.... The key is to practice them.
Shani Robins
One of the great mysteries about music is that it
does not exist outside the brain....The brain itself creates the sounds
we think we hear as music.
Pauline Le Bel
Nothing living or "dead" exists without a parent. No
idea, no rock, no cultural feature, no social structure, no diversity.
Every thing
grows or grew out of a preexisting structure, and most of the steps are
tiny.
Paul Fast
I have assembled here some of the major broad
parallels between the evolution of life and the development of the human
embryo in the first eight weeks after conception....
Paul Fast
With every [cognitively enhanced] generation, the
chasm separating the human and transhuman would expand exponentially.
Certain ineffable qualities uniquely associated with humankind could,
one by one, be forever lost to existence.
Jack Palmer
Beyond the inordinate grace of showing up in my life
at all, the greatest gift Ganesh Baba gave me is the Cycle of Synthesis.
A Sufi word, ta’wil,
wherein a powerful archetypal image unfolds greater and greater truths
over time, best describes
my experience with
this extraordinary drawing.
Eve Neuhaus
In light of our burgeoning knowledge of our physical
world, what vital and unexpected reality is waiting discovery beneath
the static surface of the written pages, particularly regarding our
origins, destiny, and relationship with God?
Heather Mendel
Part II Changing Our Evolutionary Trajectory
Our choice as a species is straightforward and
profound. We can continue along our current path of denial, bargaining,
and increasingly unsustainable consumption, [or we can] awaken ourselves
from the dream of limitless material growth and actively invent new ways
to live within the material limits of the Earth.
Duane Elgin
Instead of studying and classifying mental disorders
as clinical psychology does, positive psychology studies the other end
of the spectrum—that which bestows healthiness, happiness, goodness, and
productivity in humans.
Jack Palmer
Song has been used throughout the ages to unite
people, to teach the young, to give strength, to offer hope and create
zest and stamina during difficult times. Singing is the one art that is
transportable, sustainable, and absolutely free.
Pauline Le Bel
This is the paradox at the core of the human
condition: we are born within an ongoing evolutionary event receding
billions of years into the past. We awake to consciousness emerging out
of unconsciousness. We are created by what we are not. Wilderness makes
civilization. The
experience of
this foundational paradox is what generates our philosophy, religion,
ethics, and politics—all our seeking and striving for ‘how best to
live.’
Louis Herman
One thing seems certain: it is in thinking about the
future that wisdom emerges. Wisdom is not some static set of principles
handed down by the
sages, nor some indisputable fact
of nature. Rather, like
the cosmos itself, it is a dynamic and evolving reality.
Jeanne Lombardo
We naturally look outward with both hope and fear
into the deep unknown, with a sense of mystery and wonder, and a deep
realization, if we grasp it, that the starry night sky above is our
neighborhood—this is where we live. The exploration of space will yield
both self-understanding and cosmic understanding, helping us to see
ourselves in the context of the whole.
Tom Lombardo
The vision for a sustainable future...needs to
include a careful consideration of the optimal human diet: what kind of
food is best for the health of humans, for the welfare of the animals
and other living things that share our planet with us, and for the
ecosystems and environment upon which we all depend? What kind of diet
is ethical, economical, and supportive of the Earth?
Linda, Jack, and Nani Palmer
I propose a definition of wisdom as a knowledge- and
experience-based process whereby intuitive, emotionally sensitive, and
altruistic processes of the right hemisphere are required to temper,
synergize, and elevate knowledge that is gained from the logical,
analytical processes of the left hemisphere.
Florence Matusky
It seems that all the dimensions of wisdom will be
necessary if we are to reduce the mountains of [animal and other]
suffering that are still currently experienced on this globe.
Shani Robins
Problems are evolutionary drivers....to make it
through this current crisis quickly enough to avoid the collapse
foreseen, we must consciously foster and participate in a nonlinear,
exponential interaction of what is emergent and creative within society
and us.
Barbara Marx Hubbard
What might we learn if we combine the scientific
stories of sacred objects, stretching back to the Beginning
13.7
billion years ago, with the sacred stories we already treasure?
Linda Gibler
In essence, all Buddhist methods help to develop and
hone our critical thinking skills. Thus the type of critical thinking
that is necessary for the pursuit of science is the same critical
thinking that Buddhist teachers encourage.
Robert Sachs
For Les, everything is an integrity issue....He would
donate his life to an experiment in transforming politics....Living his
life as an experiment gave him the breathing room and freedom to create
his life as he chose and to learn and be empowered by the mistakes he
made along the way.
Cheryl Genet
Differently stated but the same for all, the message
of thousands of studies of progressive science is exactly the same as
for thousands of years for progressive religion: Do unto others as ye
would have them do unto you.
Daivd Loye
Part III Making Corporations Sustainable
As the most influential actors on the planet,
companies must lead by example by adopting sustainable economic,
environmental, and social practices.... Despite the urgent need for
corporate transformations, the change leadership style advocated is
decentralized and non-directive. It is courageously soft.
Bob Willard
...who will go down in history as leading the
corporate sustainability revolution?....They will be leaders who pay
attention to the vast majority of scientists who foresee catastrophe in
"business as usual." They will have profoundly reckoned with the impact
of externalizing their costs and plundering the Earth.
Victoria Zelin
Students who choose [sustainable MBA] programs are
focused more on demonstrating that business can be practiced as a noble
profession than on maximizing their lifetime income.
Dwight Collins
I offer
pragmatism as a
practice of moral philosophy to help individuals and organizations,
based on their values and goals, evaluate the market, society, and
environmental evidence and make different and better decisions....
Ron Nahser
In trying to solve complex problems in the world of
business and technology, we cannot address the core of problems unless
we take a systems approach, use the best knowledge of human experience,
and apply critical thinking.
Warren Wolf
At its very core, Holistic Management recognizes that
all civilization is sustained by the functioning of ecosystem
processes—the water cycle, the mineral cycle, solar energy flow, and
community dynamics.... Furthermore, from this perspective, it is
recognized that there is only one ecosystem on the planet and that all
life in its many forms exists as a result of a set of relationships.
Rob Rutherford
Whatever president in power, the United States has
consistently contributed to the coffers of other nations’ ruling classes
in order to extract commercial advantage while depriving the poorer
classes of their economic rights.
Tom Neuhaus
Only through a movie,
Blood Diamonds,
do we recognize that somehow the things we buy tie us to this region and
its roving militias. It is a measure of the oddity of such a small
country [Rwanda] figuring so largely in our minds that, in addition to
Blood Diamonds,
two other movies have touched millions:
Gorillas in the Mists
and Hotel Rwanda.
William O’Toole
Species flourish only when they live at or below the
maximum population their ecological niche and the annual input of solar
energy can support.... With the discovery of tools, fire, iron, coal,
and recently oil, however, we were able to expand our population far
above the natural carrying capacity, and to occupy virtually every
ecological niche on earth.
Peter Hess and Richard MacDonald
Humanity is now at a classic "tipping point" where a
continual population expansion is intersecting with an oil production
that is nearing its peak and soon will fall into irreversible decline.
Peter Hess and Richard MacDonald
Part IV Raising Our Evolutionary Consciousness
One of the most critical challenges facing humanity
is not devising solutions to the energy crisis or climate crisis or
species extinction; rather, it is bringing images and archetypes of the
human journey into our collective awareness that empower us to look
beyond a future of great adversity and to see a future of great
opportunity....To change the future, we need to discover a new story
that reorients how we live together.
Duane Elgin
We are beginning to contemplate that we are this
universe, self-aware, and pondering the astonishing idea that we
actually have a role in the unfolding of the cosmos. This awakening can
drive a fiery ecstasy through our tender bodies, emotions, and
imaginations.
Keith Mesecher
This dance is a mutual, reciprocal exchange of
energies, a self emptying, self giving and receiving, a great dance that
is creating us and a dance that is being re-created by us at one and the
same time....Love, hidden within the evolving process and yet
Transcendent to it, is able to bring order out of the chaos of a
creation becoming.
Alice McDonald
How can we re-link our sacred world to our
livelihoods so our day jobs become our places of healing and
transformation and passion? The answer can be sought through an
understanding of what I believe to be the secret of happiness: giving
our gifts and being of service to our community makes us happy!
Bob Banner
Only an understanding that can account for the
totality of interconnections and influences can provide the basis for a
healthy, sustainable planet....The concept of the individual is an
abstraction, a convenient but naive way of perceiving the world.
Richard Trowbridge
Therefore, in order to sustain the necessary flow of
wisdom during this new century, humanity is faced with the haunting task
of evaluating the immense impact of the past century’s advancements of
knowledge on our current explanation of the whole of creation and of our
place in it.
Josefina Burgos
A map of the whole cosmos is...helpful to understand
what and how we see, and to ground our observations in reality....The
special significance of our "observer’s position" is that it is the
4-way intersection of space, time, light, and matter, the only point in
our personal universe where two-way interactions are possible.
John Gowan
Applied to the concept of utopia, the perfect society
would be one that had no further capacity or need for growth or
improvement. But that any society could be complete or could fully have
achieved its purpose is inconceivable; no matter how good a society is,
it can always be better.
Jeanne Lombardo
Why are human institutions on our planet not taking
actions to restore the base of natural resources on which we and all
life on Earth depend for our survival? It may be that our
genetic-cultural co-evolution as hunter-gatherers has not wired us to
perceive accurately or focus on the impact of outcomes that are beyond
the scope of our relatively brief lives.
Dwight Collins
...thinking about the future is the most enlightening
and practical topic the human mind can entertain, therefore the
enhancement of future consciousness is essential in higher education.
The best way to enhance its capacities is through the strengthening of
character, virtues, and in particular, wisdom.
Tom Lombardo
The scientific history of cosmos, Earth, life, and
humanity is our shared sacred story—our common creation myth. It is an
epic tale that reaches back billions of years and crowns each and every
one of us as heir to a magnificent and proud lineage.... The good news
is that the coming decades will see each of our religious, ethnic, and
cultural stories embraced within [this] larger sacred context.
Michael Dowd
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CONTRIBUTORS
Abrams, Nancy Ellen – Philosopher of
science, a lawyer, and a writer.
Co-authored, with cosmologist Joel R. Primack, The View from
the Center of the Universe and The New Universe and the
Human Future.
Banner, Bob – Publishes HopeDance online
at www.hopedance.org and screens transformational documentaries
in many cities in California.
Burgos, Josefina, M.A., Ph.D. Philosophy
and Religion – California Institute of Integral Studies, San
Francisco. She has presented and published extensively in
the field of Process Philsophy.
Collins, Dwight, Ph.D. – President,
Collins Family Foundation; Faculty Member and Lecturer,
Sustainable Operations Management, Presidio Graduate School, San
Francisco.
Drew Dellinger - poet, writer, speaker,
and educator exploring and expressing the cultural implications
of contemporary cosmology. He is the author of Love Letter to
the Milky Way.
Dowd, Michael – Evolutionary Evangelist
with his wife, Connie Barlow; author of Thank God for
Evolution.
Eisler, Riane, J.D. – President, Center
for Partnership Studies; author of The Chalice and The Blade,
Sacred Pleasure, The Real Wealth of Nations, and
other books.
Elgin, Duane, M.B.A. and M.A. – Speaker,
author, and trans-partisan media activist. Author of: The
Living Universe, Promise Ahead, Voluntary Simplicity, and
Awakening Earth. Currently gathering a series of deep
stories of humanity’s time of great transition; Frequently
writes a blog for the Huffington Post on a wide range of themes.
Fast, Paul G., Ph.D. – Retired biological
research scientist—deeply influenced by Brian Swimme, Thomas
Berry, Pauline Le Bel, and Stuart Kauffman.
Genet, Cheryl, Ph.D. – Adjunct Professor
of Philosophy, Cuesta College; Managing Editor of the Collins
Foundation Press; Science and Humanities Program Director,
Collins Educational Foundation.
Genet, Russell M., Ph.D. – Research
Scholar in Residence, California Polytechnic State University;
Adjunct Professor of Astronomy, Cuesta College: Director, Orion
Observatory.
Gibler, Linda, O.P., Ph.D. – Associate
Academic Dean, Oblate School of Theology; Adjunct Professor,
Loyola Institute for Ministry; Science Editor, Collins
Foundation Press.
Gowan, John A., B.A. – Research
Technician (retired) Biological Sciences, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY. Science writer and Web author.
Herman, Louis G., Ph.D. – Philosopher;
Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii, West Oahu.
Hess, Peter M. J., Ph.D. – Director of
Outreach to Religious Communities, National Center for Science
Education, Oakland, CA; lecturer, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga,
California; co-author of Catholicism and Science; Fellow,
International Society for Science and Religion.
Hubbard, Barbara Marx – Social innovator,
speaker, author, educator, and leader in the new worldview of
conscious evolution. Co-founder of The Foundation for Conscious
Evolution; Conscious Evolution Chair at Wisdom University.
Le Bel, Pauline, B. Music – Singer,
songwriter, recording artist, vocal teacher, screenwriter,
novelist, author of The Song Spinner.
Lombardo, Jeanne Belisle, M.A. –
Co-Director of the Center for Future Consciousness in
Scottsdale, Arizona, co-author (with Tom Lombardo) of Mind
Flight, free-lance writer & editor, program director at Rio
Salado College, Tempe, AZ.
Lombardo, Tom, Ph.D. – Co-Director of the
Center for Future Consciousness in Scottsdale, AZ, Professor
Emeritus, Rio Salado College, author of Wisdom, Consciousness
and the Future, Mind Flight, and others; professional
speaker.
Loye, David, Ph.D. – Psychologist and
evolutionary systems scientist, author of The Parable of the
Three Villages 2012, founder of the new Moral Transformation
Network and Osanto University.
MacDonald, Alice, M.A. Theology – Adult
Educator in the Catholic Community of Santa Barbara, CA.;
Retired Coordinator, Word and Life Faith Community.
McDonald, Richard J., Ph.D. – Retired
experimental nuclear physicist, resource investor.
Matusky, Florence Pittman, Ph.D. Human
and Organizational Development –Mentors doctoral students and
has taught counseling psychology at Prescott College, Arizona.
She has researched and written extensively about the Western
intellectual tradition.
Mendel, Heather – Mystic, artist, writer,
facilitator and teacher of kabbala. Trained as a speech and
hearing therapist. Author of Dancing in the Footsteps of Eve
and facilitator of workshops and retreats.
Mesecher, Keith – Singer/songwriter;
staged North America’s first Evolutionary Revival, in
partnership with Michael Dowd, Connie Barlow, and his Cosmic All
Stars band. Socially responsible investment advisor.
Mobus, George, Ph.D. – Associate
Professor of Computer Science, Engineering, and Systems,
Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Tacoma.
Nahser, Ron, PhD. – Senior Wicklander
Fellow, Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, DePaul
University; Provost Emeritus, Presidio Graduate School. San
Francisco.
Neuhaus, Eve Baumohl, M.A. – Pacifica
Graduate Institute, author of The Crazy Wisdom of Ganesh Baba.
Neuhaus, Tom, Ph.D. – Professor Emeritus,
California State Polytechnic University. President of Project
Hope and Fairness, an NGO established to enhance economic and
environmental sustainability of West African cocoa farmers.
O’Toole, William, B.A. Biology/Systems
Ecology – Founder and President of EcoNomics, Inc. He applies
principals of ecology to the political and business arenas and
provides sustainability advice to solid waste and recycling
firms and numerous organizations.
Palmer, Jack A., Ph.D. – Professor of
Psychology at the University of Louisiana at Monroe; researcher
and author; co-author of Evolutionary Psychology: The
Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior; co-editor of Science,
Wisdom, and the Future.
Palmer, Linda K., M.S. –
Researcher/writer/editor specializing in science and
spirituality; editor Naam Publishing & Collins Foundation Press;
co-author of Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of
Human Behavior; co-editor of The Evolutionary Epic
and Science, Wisdom, and the Future.
Palmer, Nani Faye, B.S. – News production
director at a CBS affiliate on the west coast;
photographer/writer/editor with broad interests in the
exploration of communication, culture, and science.
Primack, Joel R., Ph.D. – Distinguished
Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz and a
leading cosmologist. Co-authored, with Nancy Ellen Abrams,
The View from the Center of the Universe and The New
Universe and the Human Future.
Ritchlin, Sheri, Ph.D. – Free-lance
writer, editor, and lecturer.
Robins, Shani, Ph.D. – Instructor at
Stanford University; Licensed Clinical Psychologist, founder of
Wisdom TherapyTM; Director of the Wisdom Therapy Institute & the
Monterey Peninsula Wisdom Adult Day Health Care Center.
Rutherford, Rob – Professor of Animal
Science; certified educator of Holistic Management
Sachs, Robert – Licensed clinical social
worker, massage therapist, certified yoga instructor, and
Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and teacher. He is the author of
Becoming Buddha and The Wisdom of The Buddhist Masters.
Trowbridge, Richard Hawley, Ph.D. –
Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy, Monroe Community College,
Rochester, NY.
Willard, Bob – Sustainability speaker &
author of books, spreadsheets, DVDs, and slides for
sustainability champions.
Wolf, Warren – Consultant in the fields
of energy, sustainability, and new business and technology
development.
Zelin, Victoria L. – Currently, business
development for Deloitte’s Sustainability & Climate Change
practice; previously at human capital solutions and
transformational consulting firms.
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FOREWORD
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Scientific Cosmology, Cultural Wisdom, and
Questions
The science of our cosmic and biological
evolution is the basis of a new story of how we humans came to
be here on planet Earth and what can lie ahead for us in the
millions of years to come. This account, drawn together from
multiple sciences into a contiguous story, can unify the human
race and transcend all religious or local mythologies. But our
scientific understanding has moved light years ahead of our
society’s political and social development. The chapters in this
book are written from diverse perspectives to address this
disparity between science and culture, while sharing a common
foundation in our evolutionary story. They help the public
understand and appreciate that science is providing the great
creation story that will serve the future global civilization;
that, in fact, we need such a story
now;
and that, if we can express it accurately but powerfully in
mythic-quality language and imagery, it will be of central
importance to our lives and redefine our identities as members
of the human species. As Joseph Campbell put it, the story that
unites a culture "is
not an ideology. It is not something projected from the brain,
but something experienced from the heart."
No individual can
create a new cosmological story—it must arise from the
collective work and imagination of the culture. Now, for the
first time in human history, we have the scientific knowledge to
make the story accurate, and science is shared around the world
even among people who do not see eye to eye on many other
things.
There are, however, countless questions to be
answered in order to integrate new knowledge from a wide range
of sciences, including social science, into a coherent,
overarching vision. This vision must supply our emerging global
civilization with basic principles of a sharable view of reality
while honoring cultural diversity. What do we actually know
about what it takes to make individuals healthy, happy, and
fulfilled? What prescriptions have been offered to create
fulfilled individuals in functioning societies on a peaceful and
sustainable planet? Do social scientists understand why some
societies are healthy and others dysfunctional? Can they tell us
why some cultures peacefully coexist while others are
continually embroiled in strife? What do we really know about
the interaction between a suddenly dominant sentient species and
an obviously finite planet? Is our scientific understanding
sufficient to solve the problems facing us, or do we need
additional insights beyond science itself to create a
flourishing humanity on a sustainable planet? What is the true
nature of wisdom and its cultural impact? Is there wisdom in
philosophical, humanist, spiritual, and religious traditions
that can guide us toward a flourishing humanity? How should our
local and national political leaders deal with what to many
appears to be an impending global crisis? What part should
evolutionary cosmology play in education? What new directions in
education, politics, cultural studies, spirituality, business,
and sustainability are pointing the way to a desirable future?
Around the world there is a growing sense
that humanity is approaching an evolutionary "tipping point"—one
that will lead to our transformation or our extinction. This
recognition crosses all disciplinary, social, political, and
religious boundaries because it is clear that these traditional
boundaries, cradles of our civilization, no longer serve a
maturing humanity. We are at the brink of adulthood as a species
and must understand our enormous past in order to understand the
enormous potential of our future. We are the first intelligent
life we know of in the universe, charting a new course for
itself into unknown territory. We are the primordial stardust
come to consciousness, aware of our evolutionary past in deep
time. Will we ignore this precious gift and responsibility of
awareness, or will we treasure and nurture it? Can this
awareness guide us as we attempt to chart our future course?
These questions are, of course, enormous and
beyond the scope of any one book or conference. Nevertheless,
this book makes substantial contributions, from many different
viewpoints, to finding answers to these questions, or at least
to more precisely articulating them.
Science, Wisdom, and the
Future is a
primer to understanding a worldwide movement to explore and
define the possible meaning of our ever-growing science-based
story of ourselves—the first that is equally true for every
person on Earth. Nothing could be more valuable to the creation
of a sustainable, even flourishing, world, than the kind of
cooperation that would be engendered by both a unifying
cosmological story for humanity and development of answers to
the many questions it raises.
Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack
Authors of
The New Universe and the
Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World
(Yale Univ. Press 2011) and
The View from the Center
of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the
Cosmos
(Penguin/Riverhead 2006) |
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