The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living

Fritjof Capra

Flamingo, 2003 - Biotechnology - 272 pages

A fierce attack on globalism – and a manifesto for change – by one of the world’s leading scientific writers.

Recent scientific discoveries indicate that all life – from the most primitive cells, up to human societies, corporations and nation-states, even the global economy – is organised along the same basic patterns and principles: those of the network.

However, the new global economy differs in important aspects from the networks of life: whereas everything in a living network has a function, globalism ignores all that cannot give it an immediate profit, creating great armies of the excluded. The global financial network also relies on advanced information technologies – it is shaped by machines, and the resulting economic, social and cultural environment is not life-enhancing but life-degrading, in both a social and an ecological sense.

Capra demonstrates conclusively how tightly humans are connected with the fabric of life and makes it clear that it is imperative to organise the world according to a different set of values and beliefs, not only for the well-being of human organisations, but for the survival and sustainability of humanity as a whole.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - HarryHaller86 - LibraryThing

Together with "The web of life", one of the best essays about how living beings develop themselves, evolve and fit in the regulation of the global ecosystem. Brilliently written, the author explains different theories recently developped that fit between themselves like the pieces of a puzzle

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - brett_in_nyc - LibraryThing

This is great although I can't quite put my finger on it. It is a great introduction into the sea changes in thought that I am sure will characterize our age in 1000 years. The big most accessible ...

About the author

Capra received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Vienna and has done research in high-energy physics at several European and American universities. He has written and lectured extensively about the philosophical implications of modern science and is the author of The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, Uncommon Wisdom and The Web of Life. Currently Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, he lives in Berkeley with his wife and daughter.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living
• Author: Fritjof Capra
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Flamingo, 2003
• ISBN: 0006551580, 9780006551584
• Length: 272 pages