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Readers of Freeman Dyson’s previous books, Disturbing the Universe, Weapons and Hope, and Infinite in All Directions, have discovered for themselves what Dyson reveals here: that he was a writer long before he became a distinguished scientist. The aim of this new book, as Dyson says, is to open windows, to let the experts inside the temple of science see out, and to let the ordinary citizens outside see in.” In this process an immensely broad range of ideas, people, contemporary history, and discoveries of many sorts pass in review. Beginning with a piece of writing he did as a child and ending with recent work, he goes from Eros, the god or youthful passion, to Gaia, the fertile life-giving mother-planet Earth. The pilgrimage is a good metaphor for the life of a writer. This book is full of discoveries. In the company of one of the most lucid minds of our time, one approaches great men and problems central to our common existence. Always there is warmth, kindness, high intelligence and humor. Dyson is intimate with both science and man. Whether he is dealing with the problems of physics or politics, whether he is engrossed in astronomy or literature, whether he is concentrating on an African village of space science, Dyson’s view is always “infinite in all directions,” always following the path of diversity, always keeping his eye on the wonder of our earth and the health and happiness of its inhabitants.
Untitled Document Chaos, Gaia, Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History The History of the World According to Chaos Theory In this eclectic and interdisciplinary work, chaos pioneer Ralph Abraham traces the history of consciousness through a rediscovery of the three forces that drive it: chaos, gaia, and eros-the mind, body, and spirit of evolution. With startling originality and clarity of vision, Abraham employs photographs, timelines, charts, and an engaging format to sweep the reader along on this wild ride through math, science, mythology, philosophy, and the whole of history. Sure to fascinate the poet, scientist, philosopher, and historian in all of us, Chaos, Gaia, Eros is a mind-bending masterwork that reunites the chaotic and mythological forces of human history and blows the doors off existing modes of thought. "Chaos, Gaia, Eros deliteralizes history so we see it not only as a sequence of events, but as a flow of ideas and cultural myths... T]his is an important book for understanding the past, living in the present, and shaping the future." -David Fideler, founder of Phanes Press and editor of Alexandra: The Journal of the Western Cosmological Traditions "This extraordinary work is a veritable Rosetta stone, unlocking the past, present and future." -Joan Halifax, author of The Fruitful Darkness. " Ralph Abraham has] his own highly original ideas about the application of chaos theory to changes in history and consciousness, making for a rich and provocative blend" -Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade. "Ralph Abraham is the most readable and delightful of mathematical pioneers. He is in the great tradition of Poincar and Whitehead, a true mathematical humanist. Chaos, Gaia, Eros is destined to be a voice shaping the new millennium." -Terence McKenna, author of True Hallucinations, The Invisible Landscape, Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods. -------- Ralph Abraham is a world renowned chaos theorist and professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Gaia Eros is a collection of essays and instructions for anyone interested in finding a way to reconnect to Gaia, the living Earth. Somewhere as you read this, a Pagan-affinity group is hard at work preparing the next Beltane ritual in their area. A circle of bearded priests is gathered to revitalize the nearly lost sensibilities of ancient Druidry. And a man contacts his soul and planet more deeply through his artful preparation of wild foods and a woodstove-baked pie. In an age of accelerating distraction and destruction, each of these individuals is a hero. They are among the growing number of people who feel both the suffering and joy of the world in every cell of their being. They are the seekers experiencing the world through their reawakened primal instincts, through their caring hearts, through every inch of skin. And each draws insight and instruction from their relationship with the living, inspirited Earth.
The emergence of modern sciences in the seventeenth century profoundly renewed our understanding of nature. For the last three centuries new ideas of nature have been continually developed by theology, politics, economics, and science, especially the sciences of the material world. The situation is even more unstable today, now that we have entered an ecological mutation of unprecedented scale. Some call it the Anthropocene, but it is best described as a new climatic regime. And a new regime it certainly is, since the many unexpected connections between human activity and the natural world oblige every one of us to reopen the earlier notions of nature and redistribute what had been packed inside. So the question now arises: what will replace the old ways of looking at nature? This book explores a potential candidate proposed by James Lovelock when he chose the name 'Gaia' for the fragile, complex system through which living phenomena modify the Earth. The fact that he was immediately misunderstood proves simply that his readers have tried to fit this new notion into an older frame, transforming Gaia into a single organism, a kind of giant thermostat, some sort of New Age goddess, or even divine Providence. In this series of lectures on 'natural religion,' Bruno Latour argues that the complex and ambiguous figure of Gaia offers, on the contrary, an ideal way to disentangle the ethical, political, theological, and scientific aspects of the now obsolete notion of nature. He lays the groundwork for a future collaboration among scientists, theologians, activists, and artists as they, and we, begin to adjust to the new climatic regime.
The Faith of Scientists is an anthology of writings by twenty-one legendary scientists, from the dawn of the Scientific Revolution to the frontiers of science today, about their faith, their views about God, and the place religion holds--or doesn't--in their lives in light of their commitment to science. This is the first book to bring together so many world-renowned figures of Western science and present them in their own words, offering an intimate window into their private and public reflections on science and faith. Leading religion scholar Nancy Frankenberry draws from diaries, personal letters, speeches, essays, and interviews, and reveals that the faith of scientists can take many different forms, whether religious or secular, supernatural or naturalistic, conventional or unorthodox. These eloquent writings reflect a spectrum of views from diverse areas of scientific inquiry. Represented here are some of the most influential and colossal personalities in the history of science, from the founders of science such as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein, to modern-day scientists like Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Jane Goodall, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking, Edward O. Wilson, and Ursula Goodenough. Frankenberry provides a general introduction as well as concise introductions to each chapter that place these writings in context and suggest further reading from the latest scholarship. As surprising as it is illuminating and inspiring, The Faith of Scientists is indispensable for students, scholars, and anyone seeking to immerse themselves in important questions about God, the universe, and science.
***WINNER, 2010 Nautilus Silver Book Award – Cosmology/New Science Gaia theory argues that the flora and fauna of the planet operate in a self-regulating web that keeps the world livable. According to the theory, humankind is the most powerful species in this web and also its biggest threat. This provocative book explores ways to minimize and ultimately eliminate this threat with love and intimacy. Controversial Italian author Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio has authored the first global ecology study based on an analysis of human health. Anderlini-D’Onofrio identifies her remedy within the context of Gaia theory, re-envisioning it as a more inclusive philosophy that positively impacts not only relationships, but world ecology under duress. The author links human sexuality to the global ecosystem, claiming that freedom from fear will stimulate a holistic health movement powerful enough to heal relationships and restore planetary balance. Gaia and the New Politics of Love is bracing in its range, weaving together issues of human and global health; the relationship of politics, sexuality, and ecology; practices and styles of love; the changing roles of eroticism and gender in our lives; and polyamory, bisexuality, and the AIDS reappraisal movement. Clarification Statement from the Author The argument of this book emphasizes the arts of loving as a way to help humanity make peace with our hostess Gaia, the third planet. Some of these arts involve sharing emotional resources and amorous partners. Often, the arts of loving require the use of barriers: mechanical protections such as condoms. At times they do not because only tantric energies are exchanged. The author of this book is persuaded that barriers are recommendable when sexual practices result in the exchange of deep body fluids, unless previous fluid-bonding arrangements have been made. The author is also persuaded that good practices of holistic health contribute to strengthening the immune systems of those who engage in the arts of loving. Safety practices are important in making the arts of loving healthy regardless of what factors are involved in the syndromes most prevalent today, including AIDS and other conditions in the STD spectrum. Historically, disagreement has moved knowledge forward: Today’s science is the result of yesterday’s disagreements and controversies. The author believes in critical thinking and she respects dissidence in science today, including Gaia science, reappraisals of AIDS, and holistic medicine. She hopes her readers will be open to hearing more than one side of a story. This statement and the contents of this book do not constitute medical advice in any way. Readers are invited to consult their own healers and health care providers. Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, March 2010 Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ From the Trade Paperback edition.
NASA Astrobiologist and renowned scientist Dr. David Grinspoon brings readers an optimistic message about humanity's future in the face of climate change. For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made--up until this point, inadvertently--to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures. By comparing Earth's story to those of other planets, astrobiologist David Grinspoon shows what a strange and novel development it is for a species to evolve to build machines, and ultimately, global societies with world-shaping influence. Without minimizing the challenges of the next century, Grinspoon suggests that our present moment is not only one of peril, but also great potential, especially when viewed from a 10,000-year perspective. Our species has surmounted the threat of extinction before, thanks to our innate ingenuity and ability to adapt, and there's every reason to believe we can do so again. Our challenge now is to awaken to our role as a force of planetary change, and to grow into this task. We must become graceful planetary engineers, conscious shapers of our environment and caretakers of Earth's biosphere. This is a perspective that begs us to ask not just what future do we want to avoid, but what do we seek to build? What kind of world do we want? Are humans the worst thing or the best thing to ever happen to our planet? Today we stand at a pivotal juncture, and the answer will depend on the choices we make.
Two innovative spiritual teachers show how to use desire and passion—eros—as a gateway to realizing our fullest potential What do desire and passion have to do with our spiritual journey? According to A. H. Almaas and Karen Johnson, they are an essential part of it. Conventional wisdom cautions that desire and passion are opposed to the spiritual path—that engaging in desire will take you more into the world, into egoic life. And for most people, that is exactly what happens. We naturally tend to experience wanting in a self-centered way. The Power of Divine Eros challenges the view that the divine and the erotic are separate. When we open to the energy, aliveness, spontaneity, and zest of erotic love, we will find it inseparable from the realm of the holy and sacred. When this is understood, desire and passion become a gateway to wholeness and to realizing our full potential. Through guided exercises, the authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person. Through embodying the energy of eros, each of us can learn to be fully real and alive in all of our interactions.
The autobiography of one of the world's greatest scientists Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has composed an autobiography unlike any other. Dyson evocatively conveys the thrill of a deep engagement with the world-be it as scientist, citizen, student, or parent. Detailing a unique career not limited to his groundbreaking work in physics, Dyson discusses his interest in minimizing loss of life in war, in disarmament, and even in thought experiments on the expansion of our frontiers into the galaxies.
Get a global perspective on bisexuality from a women's viewpoint! Women and Bisexuality: A Global Perspective reflects the growing contribution bisexuals, and especially bisexual women, make to queer culture on an international level. This unique book presents a collection of thoughtful essays, studies, and reviews that combine to help develop a language that reflects the reality of bisexuality from a feminine/feminist viewpoint. Authors map the inroads made by bisexual studies into conventional disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, health, literature, film, history, and biography, and analyze the situations of bisexual women in areas as diverse as France, North America, Germany, Australia, and Africa. The rich and varied contributions to Women and Bisexuality: A Global Perspective track the spread of bisexuality from the urban and metropolitan centers of gay culture to more peripheral areas as the movement becomes more and more hospitable to transnational and transcultural people. The book's main themesbisexuality's ability to disrupt categories and the resulting feeling of alienation many bisexuals experienceare manifested in approaches that include critical theory, deconstruction, textual analysis, cognitive psychology, personal essay, review essay, reportage, and qualitative study. Topics addressed include: the impact of feminism and women's communities on the appearance of bisexual women multi-sexual relationships as border existence in Australia a South African perspective on bisexuality understanding bisexuality's invisibility Lillian Hellmann's bisexual fantasies and much more! Women and Bisexuality: A Global Perspective follows bisexuality to the crossroads of academics and activism, presenting a wide scope of refreshing and insightful thought that reflects more than an identity or practice. The diverse mix of ideas is an essential read for anyone interested in literature on sexuality.