The Economic Superorganism

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030502953
Total Pages : 474 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Economic Superorganism by : Carey W. King

Download or read book The Economic Superorganism written by Carey W. King and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-07 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy drives the economy, economics informs policy, and policy affects social outcomes. Since the oil crises of the 1970s, pundits have debated the validity of this sequence, but most economists and politicians still ignore it. Thus, they delude the public about the underlying influence of energy costs and constraints on economic policies that address such pressing contemporary issues as income inequality, growth, debt, and climate change. To understand why, Carey King explores the scientific and rhetorical basis of the competing narratives both within and between energy technology and economics. Energy and economic discourse seems to mirror Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion: For every narrative there is an equal and opposite counter-narrative. The competing energy narratives pit "drill, baby, drill!" against renewable technologies such as wind and solar. Both claim to provide secure, reliable, clean, and affordable energy to support economic growth with the most benefit to society, but how? To answer this question, we need to understand the competing economic narratives, techno-optimism and techno-realism. Techno-optimism claims that innovation overcomes any physical resource constraints and enables the social outcomes and economic growth we desire. Techno-realism, in contrast, states that no matter what energy technologies we use, feedbacks from physical growth on a finite planet constrain economic growth and create an uneven distribution of social impacts. In The Economic Superorganism, you will discover stories, data, science, and philosophy to guide you through the arguments from competing narratives on energy, growth, and policy. You will be able to distinguish the technically possible from the socially viable, and understand how our future depends on this distinction.

Bees as Superorganisms

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642846661
Total Pages : 409 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (428 download)

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Book Synopsis Bees as Superorganisms by : Robin Moritz

Download or read book Bees as Superorganisms written by Robin Moritz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The honeybee (Apis melli/era L. ) is one of the better studied organisms on this planet. There are plenty of books on the biology of the honeybee for all, the scientist, the beekeeper, and the layman. In view of this flood of publications one is tempted to ask: why does it require another one? The answer is simple: a new one is not required and we do not intend to present a new book on "the honeybee". This would really just add some more inches to the already overloaded bookshelf without sub stantial new information. Instead, we intend to present a book on the honeybee colony. This of course immediately releases the next question: so what is the difference? Although the difference may look insignificant at first glance, we try to guide the reader with a fundamentally different approach through the biology of honeybees and eusocial insect societies in general. The biology of individual colony members is only addressed when it is necessary to explain colonial mechanisms, and the colony as a whole, as a biological unit, which is the main focus of this treatise. Both of us felt that all current textbooks on bee biology put too much emphasis on the individual worker, queen or drone in the colony. Often it is com pletely neglected that the colony is a very significant (if not the most significant) biological structure in bee biology.

More Heat than Life: The Tangled Roots of Ecology, Energy, and Economics

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811539367
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (115 download)

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Book Synopsis More Heat than Life: The Tangled Roots of Ecology, Energy, and Economics by : Jeremy Walker

Download or read book More Heat than Life: The Tangled Roots of Ecology, Energy, and Economics written by Jeremy Walker and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the interacting histories of the disciplines of ecology and economics, from their common origin in the ancient Greek concept of oikonomia, through their distinct encounters with energy physics, to the current obstruction of neoliberal economics to responses to the ecological and climate crisis of the so-called Anthropocene. Reconstructing their constitution as separate sciences in the era of fossil-fuelled industrial capitalism, the book offers an explanation of how the ecological sciences have moved from a position of critical collision with mainstream economics in the 1970s, to one of collusion with the project of permanent growth, in and through the thermal crisis of the biosphere.

Ultrasocial

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110883826X
Total Pages : 287 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Ultrasocial by : John M. Gowdy

Download or read book Ultrasocial written by John M. Gowdy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Society is an ultrasocial superorganism whose requirements take precedence over individuals. What does this mean for humanity's future?

The Superorganism

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 9780393067040
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (67 download)

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Book Synopsis The Superorganism by : Bert Holldobler

Download or read book The Superorganism written by Bert Holldobler and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of "The Ants" render the extraordinary lives of the social insects--ants, bees, wasps, and termites--in this visually spectacular volume. 110 color and 100 black-and-white illustrations.

The Buzz about Bees

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3540787291
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis The Buzz about Bees by : Jürgen Tautz

Download or read book The Buzz about Bees written by Jürgen Tautz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-04-30 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tis book, already translated into ten languages, may at frst sight appear to be just about honeybees and their biology. It c- tains, however, a number of deeper messages related to some of the most basic and important principles of modern biology. Te bees are merely the actors that take us into the realm of phys- ology, genetics, reproduction, biophysics and learning, and that introduce us to the principles of natural selection underlying the evolution of simple to complex life forms. Te book destroys the cute notion of bees as anthropomorphic icons of busy self-sacr -i fcing individuals and presents us with the reality of the colony as an integrated and independent being—a “superorganism”—with its own, almost eerie, emergent group intelligence. We are s- prised to learn that no single bee, from queen through drone to sterile worker, has the oversight or control over the colony. - stead, through a network of integrated control systems and fee- backs, and communication between individuals, the colony - rives at consensus decisions from the bottom up through a type of “swarm intelligence”. Indeed, there are remarkable parallels between the functional organization of a swarming honeybee colony and vertebrate brains.

The Neighborhood Project

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Author :
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316175250
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis The Neighborhood Project by : David Sloan Wilson

Download or read book The Neighborhood Project written by David Sloan Wilson and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades studying creatures great and small, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson had an epiphany: Darwin's theory won't fully prove itself until it improves the quality of human life in a practical sense. And what better place to begin than his hometown of Binghamton, New York? Making a difference in his own city would provide a model for cities everywhere, which have become the habitat for over half of the people on earth. Inspired to become an agent of change, Wilson descended on Binghamton with a scientist's eye and looked at its toughest questions, such as how to empower neighborhoods and how best to teach our children. He combined the latest research methods from experimental economics with studies of holiday decorations and garage sales. Drawing upon examples from nature as diverse as water striders, wasps, and crows, Wilson's scientific odyssey took him around the world, from a cave in southern Africa that preserved the dawn of human culture to the Vatican in Rome. Along the way, he spoke with dozens of fellow scientists, whose stories he relates along with his own. Wilson's remarkable findings help us to understand how we must become wise managers of evolutionary processes to accomplish positive change at all scales, from effective therapies for individuals, to empowering neighborhoods, to regulating the worldwide economy. With an ambitious scope that spans biology, sociology, religion, and economics, The Neighborhood Project is a memoir, a practical handbook for improving the quality of life, and an exploration of the big questions long pondered by religious sages, philosophers, and storytellers. Approaching the same questions from an evolutionary perspective shows, as never before, how places define us.

Out Of Control

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 078674703X
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Out Of Control by : Kevin Kelly

Download or read book Out Of Control written by Kevin Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

Scale

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 014311090X
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Scale by : Geoffrey West

Download or read book Scale written by Geoffrey West and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is science writing as wonder and as inspiration." —The Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal From one of the most influential scientists of our time, a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws that govern the life cycle of everything from plants and animals to the cities we live in. 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. Fascinated by aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. The result was astonishing, and changed science: West found that despite the riotous diversity in mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. If you know the size of a mammal, you can use scaling laws to learn everything from how much food it eats per day, what its heart-rate is, how long it will take to mature, its lifespan, and so on. Furthermore, the efficiency of the mammal’s circulatory systems scales up precisely based on weight: if you compare a mouse, a human and an elephant on a logarithmic graph, you find with every doubling of average weight, a species gets 25% more efficient—and lives 25% longer. Fundamentally, he has proven, the issue has to do with the fractal geometry of the networks that supply energy and remove waste from the organism’s body. West’s work has been game-changing for biologists, but then he made the even bolder move of exploring his work’s applicability. Cities, too, are constellations of networks and laws of scalability relate with eerie precision to them. Recently, West has applied his revolutionary work to the business world. This investigation has led to powerful insights into why some companies thrive while others fail. The implications of these discoveries are far-reaching, and are just beginning to be explored. Scale is a thrilling scientific adventure story about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in simple but profound ways. Through the brilliant mind of Geoffrey West, we can envision how cities, companies and biological life alike are dancing to the same simple, powerful tune.

Beyond the Team

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136426280
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (364 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond the Team by : R Meredith Belbin

Download or read book Beyond the Team written by R Meredith Belbin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An internationally renowned author offers an overview of how people and jobs can best be connected in a new era. 'Beyond the Team' draws on Meredith Belbin's extensive work with organizations worldwide to give further insights into the workings of teams and groups. The modern job needs to be actively interpreted and constantly revised in terms of the balance between a team role, a work role and a professional role. The increasingly complex demands of modern jobs can be aided by a colour system as tested in international trials. A colour based top down, bottom up form of communication creates sensitive feedback with a special value where members of a workforce do not share common language. The socially complex nature of communication about work in a new era offers parallels with the intricacies of the social insect world. Information technology is extending human networking with the potential of creating a form of organization closer to what can be achieved in superorganisms. 'Beyond the Team' shows how eventually, the mature team can learn to distribute work between its own members by giving a comprehensive understanding of how to manage both team roles and work roles.

Enlightenment Now

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525427570
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (254 download)

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Book Synopsis Enlightenment Now by : Steven Pinker

Download or read book Enlightenment Now written by Steven Pinker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

SuperCooperators

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451626630
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis SuperCooperators by : Martin Nowak

Download or read book SuperCooperators written by Martin Nowak and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at the importance of cooperation in human beings and in nature, arguing that this social tool is as important an aspect of evolution as mutation and natural selection.

The Social Conquest of Earth

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0871403307
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (714 download)

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Book Synopsis The Social Conquest of Earth by : Edward O. Wilson

Download or read book The Social Conquest of Earth written by Edward O. Wilson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-04-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Book of the Year (Nonfiction) Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence (Nonfiction) From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson's legendary career. Sparking vigorous debate in the sciences, The Social Conquest of Earth upends “the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover). Refashioning the story of human evolution, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to demonstrate that group selection, not kin selection, is the premier driving force of human evolution. In a work that James D. Watson calls “a monumental exploration of the biological origins of the human condition,” Wilson explains how our innate drive to belong to a group is both a “great blessing and a terrible curse” (Smithsonian). Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, the renowned Harvard University biologist presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth’s biosphere.

Infinite Progress

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Publisher : Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN 13 : 1608324044
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis Infinite Progress by : Byron Reese

Download or read book Infinite Progress written by Byron Reese and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2013 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social Forecasting, Futurology.

The Fair Society

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226116301
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis The Fair Society by : Peter Corning

Download or read book The Fair Society written by Peter Corning and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We’ve been told, again and again, that life is unfair. But what if we’re wrong simply to resign ourselves to this situation? What if we have the power—and more, the duty—to change society for the better? We do. And our very nature inclines us to do so. That’s the provocative argument Peter Corning makes in The Fair Society. Drawing on the evidence from our evolutionary history and the emergent science of human nature, Corning shows that we have an innate sense of fairness. While these impulses can easily be subverted by greed and demagoguery, they can also be harnessed for good. Corning brings together the latest findings from the behavioral and biological sciences to help us understand how to move beyond the Madoffs and Enrons in our midst in order to lay the foundation for a new social contract—a Biosocial Contract built on a deep understanding of human nature and a commitment to fairness. He then proposes a sweeping set of economic and political reforms based on three principles of fairness—equality, equity, and reciprocity—that together could transform our society and our world. At this crisis point for capitalism, Corning reveals that the proper response to bank bailouts and financial chicanery isn’t to get mad—it’s to get fair.

Less is More

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Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1473581737
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (735 download)

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Book Synopsis Less is More by : Jason Hickel

Download or read book Less is More written by Jason Hickel and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-08-13 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times ... If you're looking for transformative ideas, this book is for you.' KATE RAWORTH, economist and author of Doughnut Economics A Financial Times Book of the Year ______________________________________ Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH. Less is More is the wake-up call we need. By shining a light on ecological breakdown and the system that's causing it, Hickel shows how we can bring our economy back into balance with the living world and build a thriving society for all. This is our chance to change course, but we must act now. ______________________________________ 'A masterpiece... Less is More covers centuries and continents, spans academic disciplines, and connects contemporary and ancient events in a way which cannot be put down until it's finished.' DANNY DORLING, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford 'Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind in the way that insects used to in abundance but soon shan't unless we are able to heed his beautifully rendered warning.' RUSSELL BRAND 'Jason Hickel shows that recovering the commons and decolonizing nature, cultures, and humanity are necessary conditions for hope of a common future in our common home.' VANDANA SHIVA, author of Making Peace With the Earth 'This is a book we have all been waiting for. Jason Hickel dispels ecomodernist fantasies of "green growth". Only degrowth can avoid climate breakdown. The facts are indisputable and they are in this book.' GIORGIS KALLIS, author of Degrowth 'Capitalism has robbed us of our ability to even imagine something different; Less is More gives us the ability to not only dream of another world, but also the tools by which we can make that vision real.' ASAD REHMAN, director of War on Want 'One of the most important books I have read ... does something extremely rare: it outlines a clear path to a sustainable future for all.' RAOUL MARTINEZ, author of Creating Freedom 'Jason Hickel takes us on a profound journey through the last 500 years of capitalism and into the current crisis of ecological collapse. Less is More is required reading for anyone interested in what it means to live in the Anthropocene, and what we can do about it.' ALNOOR LADHA, co-founder of The Rules 'Excellent analysis...This book explores not only the systemic flaws but the deeply cultural beliefs that need to be uprooted and replaced.' ADELE WALTON

Mass Capitalism

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781940598482
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (984 download)

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Book Synopsis Mass Capitalism by : Apek Mulay

Download or read book Mass Capitalism written by Apek Mulay and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Job security flew out the door decades ago--and now seems forever out of reach, thanks to the Great Recession. As much of our economy follows jobs to other countries, especially China, Americans must wonder what we will be left holding. Can we retrieve what we have lost? Apek Mulay knows we can.