The Library of Consciousness
The Library
of Consciousness
of Consciousness
The radiations that pour upon the Earth cause the biosphere to take on properties unknown to lifeless planetary surfaces, and thus transform the face of the Earth. Activated by radiation, the matter of the biosphere collects and redistributes solar energy, and converts it ultimately into free energy capable of doing work on Earth.
1926
Economics is the study of systems—how resources are sourced, transformed, and distributed to sustain life and activity. Much like metabolism in biology, economics examines the flows of energy and matter, whether in human societies or natural ecosystems. Both describe processes of input, conversion, and output: a body metabolizes food into energy, while an economy transforms raw materials into goods and services. Just as metabolic systems balance supply and demand for nutrients, economic systems balance production and consumption across scales, from individuals to global networks. Inefficiencies—whether clogged arteries or supply chain disruptions—can destabilize either system. By understanding economics as a form of societal metabolism, we can explore resource cycles, energy dynamics, and adaptation mechanisms. This perspective bridges disciplines, showing that the survival of organisms, ecosystems, and economies alike depends on maintaining dynamic flows and responding to changing environments. Economics, like metabolism, is about sustaining life’s ongoing exchange.
A Masterclass from the Pioneer of Artificial Intelligence
Jürgen Schmidhuber shares his insights on the evolution and future of AI. He discusses the development of self-improving AI systems, the concept of artificial curiosity, and the potential for machines to achieve creativity akin to humans. Schmidhuber also explores the implications of advanced AI on society, emphasizing the importance of aligning AI goals with human values to ensure beneficial outcomes. He envisions a future where AI contributes positively to various fields, including science, art, and technology.
Beyond Success
Ram Dass investigates the effect of success upon our individual consciousnesses and how one may see beyond mere egocentric opportunism.
Critical Path
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. The book 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.
Ecodynamics
A New Theory of Societal Evolution
Embark on a captivating journey into Ecodynamics, a realm where the choreography of humanity and nature unfolds. This narrative intricately weaves economics, ecology, and human behavior, illuminated by Boulding's visionary concept of ecodynamics. His framework reveals the harmonious yet fragile bond between ecosystems and economies, a bond often ignored at our peril. Boulding's interdisciplinary exploration spans from population dynamics to resource usage and technology's role, dismantling the myth of infinite growth in a finite world. Ecodynamics challenges norms, offering profound insights that beckon us to adopt sustainable practices. This clarion call echoes—safeguard both civilization and the environment for lasting well-being.
Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren
Keynes argues that due to technological advancements and capital accumulation, the economic problem of scarcity will be solved within a century, ushering in an age of abundance. He predicts higher living standards, shorter workweeks, and a shift in moral values away from the love of money. However, he cautions that this transition will be challenging, requiring society to find new purpose beyond subsistence.
Education for Non-Entity
(A True Materialist Society)
Alan presents his argument that the United States—often referred to as the ultimate materialist society—is anything but: it lacks a sincere appreciation for the material world and inadvertently destroys it in an attempt to “live the good life,” chasing after ever greener pastures just beyond the horizon of time.
From Being to Becoming
Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences
How has order emerged from chaos? In this book, intended for the general reader with some background in physical chemistry and thermodynamics, Ilya Prigogine shows how systems far from equilibrium evolve elaborate structures: patterns of circulation in the atmosphere, formation and propagation of chemical waves, the aggregation of single-celled animals. In an effort to understand these phenomena, he explores the philosophical implications of the work for which he received the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. From Being to Becoming explains how order can develop and offers a new approach to the asymmetry between past and future—the irreversibility of time. Prigogine presents an evolving rather than static world. This imaginative work is sure to arouse controversy and may change the way that the reader sees the laws of science and the world that those laws seek to explain.
Homo Deus
A Brief History of Tomorrow
Yuval Noah Harari envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. He examines our future with his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy, and every discipline in between. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution.
Industrial Society and Its Future
The Unabomber Manifesto
The anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. His manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction brought about by technology, while forcing humans to adapt to machinery, creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human freedom and potential.
On Commerce
Alan Watts explores the nature of commerce and money. He argues that we’ve lost sight of the purpose of technology—to reduce labor and increase leisure. Instead, we’re trapped in rituals and mindsets that no longer serve us. He advocates for rethinking our relationship with work, trusting employees, and embracing a more relaxed, purposeful attitude towards money and business.
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
In this essay on man, Mr. Fuller expresses what may well be his penultimate view of the human condition. Here, in a mood at once philosophical and involved, he traces humanity's intellectual evolution and weighs our capability for survival on this magnificent craft, this Spaceship Earth, this superbly designed sphere almost negligible in dimension compared to the great vastness of space. Mr. Fuller is optimistic that we will survive and, through research and development and increased industrialization, generate wealth so rapidly that we can do very great things. But, he notes, there must be an enormous educational task successfully accomplished right now to convert our tendency toward oblivion into a realization of his potential, to a universe-exploring advantage from this Spaceship Earth.
Reawakening our Connection to the Gaian Mind
In a passionate plea, McKenna urges us to embrace psychedelic experiences as a means to dissolve boundaries, connect with the Gaian mind, and find the vision necessary to address the ecological crises threatening our planet. Advocating a radical shift towards eco-consciousness, he calls for a global community built on love, responsibility, and reverence for the wisdom of nature.
Scale
The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
The former head of the Sante Fe Institute, visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks. The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries so beautiful is that he has found an underlying simplicity that unites the seemingly complex and diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies, our cities and our businesses.
Technology and Cosmogenesis
A hopeful antidote to the destruction of man's environment caused by technology divorced from spirituality. Paolo Soleri, the renowned architect, urban planner, process philosopher and alchemist of the new spirituality of science and technology, challenges us to let go of our absolutized views of human life and creation. By this release, he holds that we can be healed by a cosmos in the process of becoming divine.
The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth
The cowboy and the spaceman confront each other in this much-quoted essay by Kenneth E. Boulding, philosopher of the social sciences and intellectual prodder extraordinaire. Do we live on a limitless plain with endless resources, or in an enclosed space capsule in which we recycle—or die?
The Global Brain as a Model of the Future Information Society
The Global Brain paradigm views the emerging global information network connecting humans and technology as a nervous system for Earth's social superorganism. This special issue surveys opportunities and challenges in developing this potentially more intelligent, synergetic system. Contributions explore political, economic, and philosophical aspects, aiming to guide the transition towards a sustainable society empowering diversity.
The Human Use of Human Beings
Cybernetics and Society
Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact—in effect, a third industrial revolution—that the computer has had on our lives.
The Image
Knowledge in Life and Society
A thought-provoking exploration of the role of images in shaping human understanding, both individually and collectively. Boulding examines how images, ranging from mental constructs to cultural symbols, influence our perception of reality, guide decision-making, and contribute to the dynamics of society. He delves into the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge, drawing on psychology, sociology, philosophy, and economics, to illustrate how these images shape our behavior, values, and relationships. Boulding's work challenges readers to critically evaluate the power of images in constructing our cognitive landscapes and emphasizes the necessity of a holistic perspective to comprehend the complexities of knowledge within the context of life and society.
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began more than sixty years ago as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, in 1944, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a groundbreaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific inquiry it yielded—game theory—has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences.
Thinking in Systems
A Primer
Donella Meadows provides an accessible introduction to systems thinking, explaining how to understand complex systems and interact within them more effectively. She describes different types of systems, including physical and social systems, and key system concepts like stocks, flows, feedback loops, leverage points, and delays. Meadows illustrates these ideas through real-world examples and models, and argues that adopting a systems perspective can help address many of society's challenges in areas like sustainability, politics, and business. She aims to teach readers to think broadly about interconnections, change over time, and root causes so they can better understand and influence systems for desired outcomes.
USA 2000
Abstraction or Reality?
Beginning with his prophecy that the United States of America will no longer exist in the year 2000, Alan introduces us to a possible utopia which he discerned in his vision of the future. Topics include automation, guaranteed universal incomes, the confusion of money with wealth, changing work ethics, and the grim necessity of our learning how to sensuously enjoy luxury if we want to avoid total destruction.