Hi Everyone,

I'm just passing along the information below. I haven't reviewed the book mentioned here, but it sounds intriguing (and controversial!) and may be of interest to some of you.

Todd
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* Todd Duncan *
* Science Integration Institute *
* duncan@scienceintegration.org *
* (503) 848-0280 *
* www.scienceintegration.org *
* 1971 SE 73rd Ave. *
* Hillsboro, OR 97123 *
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> From: John Stewart <jes999@tpg.com.au>
> Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 17:39:05 -0500
> To: duncant@pdx.edu
> Subject: Evolution's Arrow
>
> Given your interest in evolution and its implications for humanity, you
> may be interested in my book 'Evolution's Arrow: the direction of
> evolution and the future of humanity.' The book has just been published
> in Australia, and I have decided to put the full text on the Internet
> until it finds a publisher outside Australia.
>
> Evolution's Arrow argues that the evolution of life is directional and
> progressive, and that evolution moves in the direction of producing
> cooperative organisations of greater scale and evolvability.
>
> The book founds this position on a new theory of the evolution of
> cooperation. It argues that existing approaches to the evolution of
> cooperation are inadequate. They are unable to account for the evolution
> that has organised molecular processes into cells, cells into organisms,
> and organisms (including humans) into societies.
>
> The new theory subsumes the narrower 'selfish-gene' perspective, and
> shows that self-interest at the level of the individual does not stand
> in the way of progress toward cooperation over wider and wider scales.
> Evolution progresses when it finds ways to build cooperative
> organisations out of self-interested components. Chapters 5, 6 and 7
> develop this new theory, and Chapters 13, 14 and 15 apply it to the
> evolution of life on earth, including human evolution.
>
> Evolution's Arrow also argues that evolution itself has evolved.
> Evolution has progressively improved the ability of evolutionary
> mechanisms to discover the best adaptations. And it has discovered new
> and better mechanisms. The book looks at the evolution of pre-genetic,
> genetic, cultural, and supra-individual evolutionary mechanisms. And it
> shows that the genetic mechanism is not entirely blind and random.
>
> Evolution's Arrow goes on to use an understanding of the direction of
> evolution and of the mechanisms that drive it to identify the next great
> steps in the evolution of life on earth - the steps that humanity must
> take if we are to continue to be successful in evolutionary terms. It
> shows how we must change our societies to increase their scale and
> evolvability, and how we must change ourselves psychologically to become
> self-evolving organisms - organisms that are able to adapt in whatever
> ways are necessary for future evolutionary success, unfettered by their
> biological or social past. Two critical steps will be the emergence of a
> highly evolvable, unified and cooperative planetary organisation that is
> able to adapt as a coherent whole, and the emergence evolutionary
> warriors - individuals who are conscious of the direction of evolution,
> and who use their evolutionary consciousness to promote and enhance the
> evolutionary success of humanity.
>
> The Internet address of the book is:
>
> http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/jes999/
>
> Do you know anyone who might be interested in having a look at the book?
> If so, please feel free to forward this e-mail and address onto them.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> John Stewart.