The Symbiotic Man: A New Understanding of the Organization of Life and a Vision of the Future

Organic Chemist, Computer Scientist, Visionary, Joel De Rosnay Has Been At The Forefront Of The Complexity Movement For Nearly Thirty Years. In This Elegant And Daring Book, He Builds Upon His Early Pioneering Work In The Application Of The Sciences Of Complexity To The Study Of Living Systems To Persuasively Argue That We Are At The Verge Of A Profound Evolutionary Leap, As Monumental In Its Implications For Life On Earth As Was The Emergence Of Multicellular Organisms. Just As Importantly He Explains How, In The Face Of Sweeping Changes To The Very Fabric Of Organic Existence, We Must Conduct Ourselves Politically, Economically, And Ethically, In The Years Ahead, If We Hope To Vouchsafe Our Survival As Species In The Third Millennium. In A Grand Synthesis That Unites Modern Cybernetics With The Sciences Of Complexity, De Rosnay Demonstrates That The Next Stage In The Natural Progression From Lower To Higher Levels Of Organization - Cell Into Organism, Organism To Population, Population Into Ecosystem - Is The Cybiont, A Planetary Superorganism Made Up Of All Humans, Machines, Organisms, Networks, And Nations. But, As Intelligent Beings, Endowed With Free Will, Human Beings Are, Uniquely, More Than Just Cells In The Superorganism Which Is Just Coming Into Being. As De Rosnay Is Prompt To Point Out, We Are Also Its Facilitators, And, As Such, We Have It In Our Power To Decide What Form The Cybiont Takes, Nurturing Partner, Or Frankenstein's Monster Inimical To All Human Life.--jacket. Foreword / Michael L. Dertouzos -- A Unified Vision Of Nature And Society -- Molecules, Insects, And Humans -- The Key To The Future: Mastering Complexity -- The Magic Of Virtuous Circles -- The Science Of The Twenty-first Century -- Putting The Part And The Whole Back Together -- Chaos: A Hidden Form Of Organization? -- Understanding Chaos: The Macroscope-computer -- Funny Birds And Virtual Ants -- The Democratic Choices Of Bees -- Between Order And Disorder, A Strange Boundary -- A General Theory Of Self-organization -- The Birth Of The Cybiont: The New Origins Of Life -- Looking Back At Our Beginnings -- The Emergence Of The Vital Functions Of The Cybiont: A Coevolutionary Proces -- The Industrial Revolution: From Coal To Cars -- The Biological Revolution: From The Farm To Mastery Of Dna -- The Information Revolution: From Writing To The Microprocessor -- Mediamorphosis: From Multimedia To Unimedia -- The Internet: The Genesis Of A Planetary Brain -- Toward Synthetic Life? -- Biological Evolution On The Computer -- Swarms Of Robot Insects -- Toward Symbiotic Man -- The Neurons Of The Earth -- A Great Discovery Of Nature -- The Benefits Of Symbiosis: Lichen, Coral, And Orchids -- The Macrobiology Of Machines: A New Symbiosis? -- New Interfaces Between Humans And Machines -- The Computer Learns Humanity -- Connecting The Computer And The Brain -- The Marriage Of Biology And Computers -- Biochips For Biocomputers -- The New Senses Of Symbiotic Humanity -- Retina Screens And Memory Implants -- Virtual Reality: Cloning And Ubiquity. Joël De Rosnay. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 289-291) And Index.