Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life

by Predrag B. Slijepčević

Biocivilisations is an important, original rethinking of the mystery of life and its deep uncertainty, exploring the complex civilisations that existed on Earth long before humans.

What is life? Many scientists believe life can be reduced to ‘mechanistic’ factors, such as genes and information codes. Yet there is a growing army of scientists, philosophers and artists who reject this view. The gene metaphor is not only too simplistic but deeply misleading. If there is a way to reduce life to a single principle, that principle must acknowledge the creativity of life, turning genetic determinism on its head.

The term biocivilisations is the acknowledgement of this uncertainty of life, as opposed to a quasi-certainty of the human position governed by a narrow time window of the scientific revolution. Life existed without humans for more than 99. 99 percent of the Earth’s existence. Life will also continue without humans long after our inevitable extinction.

In Biocivilisations, Dr Predrag Slijepčević shows how bacteria, amoebas, plants, insects, birds, whales, elephants and countless other species not only preceded human beings but demonstrate elements of how we celebrate human civilisation – complex communication, agriculture, science, art, medicine and more.

Humans must try to adopt this wisdom from other biocivilisations that have long preceded our own. By rethinking the current scientific paradigm, Dr Slijepčević makes clear that a transformation – from a naïve young species into a more mature species in tune with its surroundings – will save us from our own violence and the violence we inflict on the rest of our living planet.

Genres: Science, Nature, Nonfiction, Biology, Philosophy, Ecology

Audio CD

First published April 1, 2023

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up surrounded by trees, meadows, and billions of insects. Now, four decades later, almost no trees from that time are left, and meadows are covered by concrete and fancy houses (who can afford them?). Most insects are gone too. I remember cycling through passages between rows of neglected fruit trees with squinted eyes and clenched jaw to avoid an insect salad on my face and inside my mouth.
Since I remember I felt very sad every time I saw a dead creature. Especially tree. I am absolutely convinced that trees and other plants can feel pain. Probably not on an electrical level like humans, but on a biochemical level. It´s just something I always knew. Once I tried to talk about this to a scientist, that person is actually a well-known biologist with a huge scientific experience and knowledge. He looked at me the same way you look at someone who tells you that was kidnapped by aliens.
But miracles can happen. The author writes about a new approach within biology, a new way of seeing things. Finally, after all these years of poking and probing, there are scientists out there who have the courage to listen. Because everything around us talks. There´s even this idea of cross-kingdom communication! (yep, I knew this, too). Bacterias talk, bacterias and plants communicate, they have intelligence, and animals create art. What else do you need to finally acknowledge that every time you snip a beautiful rose from your garden you actually cause pain and sadness?
Just yesterday friend of mine sent me a petition to sign against opening the first octopus farm in Spain. One of the most intelligent creatures in the entire world farmed! Unimaginable suffering for human pleasure.
Back to the book.
I love the idea behind this publication, however, I struggled with the scientific jargon. I think I read a good amount of scientific articles, and yet I had to google quite a few things. So for a reader less familiar with the biological vocabulary, this book might be unreadable. Also, there are a huge number of references across other disciplines from philosophy to physics. Again, this requires some sort of stamina and knowledge in the first place. An average reader might just put the book away.
More stubborn readers will definitely enjoy this book.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very surprising and thought-provoking book. It challenges many of the tenets of life sciences, and while I am not sure I agree with every theory presented here, it is unquestionably a fresh and compelling vision. I liked the radical departure from anthropocentrism–given all the evidence, I find it silly and naive to see humans as the crown of creation. I think the author's proposed Copernican shift in biology is very urgently needed. And it is somehow soothing to learn that “given that all forms of life except bacteria become extinct and are replaced by new forms of life, it’s clear that life will continue in some form, post-Homo sapiens, long into the future” (learning that “humans are non-essential by-products of what mostly amounts to microbial evolutionary games” maybe less so...)

Although there are many fascinating facts about bacteria, plants, and animals, this is not a typical popular science book. At times it is more like an academic treatise, well written but still quite dense. But I think anyone interested in biology and new trends in science will read it with pleasure.

Thanks to the publisher, Chelsea Green Publishing, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected something completely different. From the title and the description I thought it would be a book about different microorganisms and their collective behaviours that have been observed in recent years. Instead, it is a dissertation to try to justify a new paradigm in biology.
Although there are some things I agree with, overall I had a feeling that the arguments in favour are rather weak, which did not convince me.
In addition, despite studying biology, I found the book a bit dense and complicated to follow. I would have liked something more adapted to the general public so that people without basic knowledge could understand the arguments of the new paradigm.
The examples used throughout the book were very good and illustrative. This is what I liked most about the book.

[Ava Lovelace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis: What is life? Many scientists believe life can be reduced to ‘mechanistic’ factors, such as genes and information codes. Yet there is a growing army of scientists, philosophers and artists who reject this view. The gene metaphor is not only too simplistic but deeply misleading. If there is a way to reduce life to a single principle, that principle must acknowledge the creativity of life, turning genetic determinism on its head.

The term biocivilisations is the acknowledgement of this uncertainty of life, as opposed to a quasi-certainty of the human position governed by a narrow time window of the scientific revolution. Life existed without humans for more than 99.99 percent of the Earth’s existence. Life will also continue without humans long after our inevitable extinction.

In Biocivilisations, Dr Predrag Slijepčević shows how bacteria, amoebas, plants, insects, birds, whales, elephants and countless other species not only preceded human beings but demonstrate elements of how we celebrate human civilisation – complex communication, agriculture, science, art, medicine and more.

Humans must try to adopt this wisdom from other biocivilisations that have long preceded our own. By rethinking the current scientific paradigm, Dr Slijepčević makes clear that a transformation – from a naïve young species into a more mature species in tune with its surroundings – will save us from our own violence and the violence we inflict on the rest of our living planet.

Opinion: As virologist I love this books where science does not focus on the human being but in other types of life such as bacteria, amoebas. We can debate if the viruses are life or not. The book tries to explain what life is beyond humans in its first part, it talks about a brave new world in part 2 and the part 3 is about looking forward. If you like science you will enjoy it.

[David]

I was sold this book by someone online claiming it's the ultimate refutation of neodarwinism that has been irking me for a while.

But, after meandering, it really doesn't do that in a clear way, or at least in a way that matters to me. I've used it as a sleeping aid.

The core arguments never convinced me. And as such, it seems like a book that might convince other biologists, not people like me.

Just seems like a lot of work, and some mythologizing to come to the conclusion that it's really just darwinistic reductionism that annoys him. It's actually a bit more complicated than that.

I guess it's cool to know the stuff some animals do, and that by some guy's own definitions, ants and trees communicate when trees try to kill ants with tree resin.

Some animals have what kiiiinda looks like biotech, some animals kiiiinda heal themselves, etc.

Let's take out the mechanistic physics out of biology, let's conserve our environment because it's stupid not to. Ironically, he believes in science a bit too much, in a society full of soulless materialists, people who make science into soulles mechanisms are flourishing. It's a selection process, and non-scientists are doing the selection.

So yeah, learned some cool facts, but this book clearly wasn't written for people like me. Maybe I'm too far gone.

This could be part of a basis of a more intelligent ecological movement.

[BirdBuddha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If organisms are mirrors of the universe, the biosphere is the composite mirror at the heart of which is symbiosis, as the way of projecting the authentic (more than human) reflection of the universe -- just as Archimboldo's Flora... represents the equality of the parts in the diversity of the whole."
- Predrag B. Slijepčević

Biocivilizations: A New Look at the Science of Life by Predrag B. Slijepčević is a fascinating work that may transform our view of the world. It critiques mechanical input-output cybernetic models in describing life, Neo-Darwinism, and Creationism. With my interest in process philosophy and deep ecology, I came to many similar conclusions as Slijepčević, and his research is drawn largely from bacteriology, entomology, and mycology. This book would be very difficult to summarize in full, so I will highlight what I consider the most important points.

Slijepčević outlines four principles that oppose mechanistic biology:

1) Universal flux (panta rhei): The concept of universal flux refers to the fact that life is a constant state of change. There are no "things" but rather "stabilized processes that are actively maintained at appropriate timescales" and "life is the flow of matter through processes, governed by constraints". All organisms are "stabilized processes through which matter, energy and information flow in an organized manner" and "no process is isolated from the symbiotic web of processes that together form the biological world". In an attempt to illustrate this process ontology, Slijepčević beautifully analyzes Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Flora. A living organism is more of a symbiotic collective than an individual, and life is an organic composite that changes constantly, almost like a series of transitions.

2) Agency (purpose and desire): The term agency refers to how organisms act as natural agents with purpose and desire. Slijepčević spends considerable time explaining what an "autopoietic system" is to explain agency. Autopoiesis relates to how all organisms, even bacteria and protists, "contain sufficient processes within themselves to maintain the processual whole," and they are self-governed due to organizational closure. Furthermore, it describes a system that can regenerate and maintain itself by producing its own components while dissipating energy. It cannot be modeled by feedback control theory. This makes "organisms autonomous and operationally closed agents". They remain structurally coupled with their environments, and the result of organism-environment dynamics is the emergence of cognition and natural learning. All of Gaia's agents are capable of anticipation. They anticipate environmental fluctuations and change them to suit their needs, and in the process create environments. This leads to organisms as epistemic agents capable of understanding their surroundings, or in other words, natural learners or 'anticipatory systems'. Slijepčević refers to the interesting mathematical research of Robert Rosen who showed that organisms are "close to Aristole's notion of efficient causation, which essentially means that organisms emerge spontaneously without the influence of any external causes - organisms make themselves". Moreover, Slijepčević describes life as a constant merging of agents of different kinds, or symbiogenesis. Even the first eukaryote organism was formed when bacteria engulfed archaea (endosymbiosis).

3) Symbiosis (living together): Slijepčević conceptualizes symbiosis as a phenomenon where agents, rather than existing in isolation, come together to create a cohesive system. This concept parallels the idea of our bodies being ecological assemblages or composite beings, made up of microorganisms and combined entities ('coevolved microbial communities'), which work in unison. It leads to the natural world being hierarchical: "bacteria and archaea merge to produce protists, protists merge to produce plants and animals, these merge to produce ecological collectives, human culture emerges from ecological collectives, and all this is underpinned by the presence of microbes as the floating cloud enveloping the Earth, which holds the bisophere together". Note, this is not a hierarchy of value, but rather, a hierarchy of interdependence with the bacteriosphere, the bacterial communication network, at its foundation because it has run and controlled Earth's biogeochemical cycles for billions of years despite catastrophes and collapses (for instance, oxygen-rich atmospheres are the result of cyanobacteria discovering how to "eat the" sun). Because all life forms are entangled, they are equally valuable, with the possible exception of mechanized humans. Throughout the whole book, Slijepčević shows that even microbes and eusocial ants meet the criteria for civilization, such as engineering, medicine, doctors, artists, and much more. In addition, Gaia constantly reconstructs and reinvents itself because it consists of autopoietic units and regulates itself around moving set points rather than fixed ones. Slijepčević refers to this steady flow around moving set points as "homeorhesis". Furthermore, he argues that symbiosis, which can be traced back to bacterial-archaean combinatorics, drives evolution. In fact, Gaia's first 2 billion years were characterized by horizontal gene transfer, showing how Darwinism must be supplemented with Lamarckism. Natural selection is merely an editor, not a creator of novelty. As a process of ceaseless creativity, life carries all organisms in its flow, and symbiosis facilitates this ceaseless creativity. The driving force of life cannot be a mechanism. Life and mechanism are two different orders of logic. As Predrag B. Slijepčević said, "For example, the cells that we are made up of are chimeras that contain mitochondria - former aerobic bacteria. Plant cells contain photosynthetic organelles, or chloroplasts - former cyanobacteria. Some animals can do photosynthesis - true plant-animal chimeras. Trees rely on symbiosis with fungi to turn forests into 'smart homes' for thousands of species. Life is more of a collaborative game between equal partners - viruses, archaea, fungi, plants and animals - and less a competition amongst predators whose behavior is fully determined by genes" (209).

4) Mind (hyperthought): 'Mind' describes Gaia's hyperthought, which depends on feedforward elements (future) produced by its autopoietic nature (past). Gaia is constantly striking unknown territories. Gaia is like a sculptor making itself. It is a self-referential process that flows around dynamic regulatory points. Essentially, Gaia's hyperthought is a decentralized and distributed mind composed of interacting or communicating parts, into which organisms and their fusions are incorporated.

Life is an intelligent, mind-like process. Through homeorhesis, Gaia regulates itself. Organisms are analogous to indeterministic holons, which are both parts and wholes at once, and merge to generate autonomous systems. In much the same way that eukaryotic cells are already ecological communities, the distinction between organisms and their environment is blurred. Natural learning occurs when organisms sense stimuli from the environment, process the stimuli to create knowledge, and then direct behavior by actively changing the environment based on knowledge acquired. The act of being intelligent involves balancing assertive and integrative tendencies (e.g., when eating prey, an organism asserts itself, but it is not advisable to hunt the prey to extinction). Evolution is not driven by fixed laws because the constraints also change.

A biocivilization is the cognitive world, or umwelten, of a species, converted into a biological substrate. In this book, a significant amount of time is devoted to describing the biocivilizations of bacteria, insects, trees, fungi, and more. To cover all of that would make this review too long, and I highly recommend buying and reading it yourself! The totality of cognitive worlds and biological substrates on Earth constitutes Gaia. Slijepčević also makes a strong case that these worlds are connected by biosemisis, and that there is constant communication within and between them. We can even consider our gut's microbiome to be a biocivilization that communicates with our brain cells. Biocivilizations that are interconnected or 'wired' together have synchronous responses or 'fire' together. This book, for example, describes how bacterial colonies in biofilm communicate quickly by quorum sensing to combat protists attracted to their volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and I found this very fascinating. This book contains so much interesting information. It is a treasure trove. In my review, I focused mainly on the biophilosophical dimension.

Life is an open, indeterministic, autopoietic, semantically meaningful, qualitative, and creative system. Mechanism is a closed, deterministic, allopoietic, semantically meaningless, quantitative, and noncreative system. Biological systems will always be more complex than our models of them. Life's evolutionary combinatorial diverse potentials far exceed the number of particles in the universe, as they fuse, diverge, and unfold in ways we cannot fathom.

Slijepčević's theory can be viewed as a variation of panpsychism. In this theory, orderly gradient-reducing systems, such as the Great Red Spot of Jupiter or the structural similarity between the cosmic web of galaxies and the neural structure of the brain, are seen as signs of an intelligence (nous) beyond human comprehension. Energy flowing through an open thermodynamic system imposes orderliness on the system. Granted, Gaia is fundamentally cognitive, with orderliness flowing through the river of life and arising periodically and with persistence, so I would argue we have a moral imperative to care for it. 'Biological peridocity' can be seen as a more dynamic and procedural way to understand convergent evolution. We must see our equality in the multiplicity of all biocivilizations in Gaia's river and care for it.

[Ling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book - possibly one of the most interesting non fiction books I’ve read.
Author raised very interesting points, and although some were a little far reaching for me, I understood them and our need as the human race to be far, far more humble about our place on this earth.

[Jana Rađa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biocivilisations was a random algorithmic recommendation on Everand, which I clicked in the middle of one of my walks with our dog. As is often the case, the recommendation proved spot on, reflecting my recently developed interest in complexity. Within the first fifteen minutes, I was hooked.

In Biocivilisations, Predrag B. Slijepčević, a senior lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at Brunel University London, presents a sweeping view of life on Earth that challenges the notion of human centrality. Life began roughly four billion years ago, whereas our species emerged only around 300,000 years ago. Yet some forms of life that predate us are so complex that they arguably outmatch us in sophistication. All types of civilisational skills—languages, engineering, medicine, art, and agriculture—existed in forms long before humans arrived on the scene. The single word that best describes the natural world, the author argues, is complexity: there are far more intricate systems in nature than anything humans have constructed.

Slijepčević argues that we should abandon the mechanistic view of life rooted in the Newtonian–Cartesian worldview. While suitable for physics, this perspective is inappropriate for biology. Life is not a machine, although mainstream biology continues to treat it as such; living organisms lie beyond the constraints of this paradigm.

Biocivilisations also critiques the prevailing scientific dogma rooted in neo-Darwinism, which treats life primarily as a system of genes and information codes. Emerging perspectives emphasise sentience and consciousness as defining features of life. All beings, the author asserts, are sentient and aware of their surroundings, though not all are conscious (ants, for example, display consciousness). Life, then, is not merely a genetic programme but a dynamic web of awareness, interaction, and complexity.

The author also addresses what he terms ‘brain chauvinism’—the assumption that only organisms with brains are important. In reality, only around 2–3 per cent of animals possess a brain, yet life’s complexity extends far beyond these few species. The Gaia system, for instance, is said to have its own mind, though not a brain-based one. This mind is entirely decentralised: living forms are interconnected, communicating in ways largely imperceptible to us, such as through interactions with bacteria in our gut. Consciousness, the author emphasises, is just one form of awareness within a vastly complex web of sentient life.

A unifying concept for life on this scale is the Gaia theory, proposed in the 1970s by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. The theory envisions the natural world as a planetary-scale system with its own decentralised intelligence. The author conceives of the planet and all its inhabitants and processes as one self-creating, or autopoietic, entity—a ‘sculptor sculpting itself’. Humans are not in control; rather, the system controls us. Yet contemporary discourse, particularly the idea of the Anthropocene, often portrays humans as controllers and owners of nature. This, the author insists, is a profound misunderstanding: we are a young species, dwarfed in age and influence by bacteria and other lifeforms, and we are certainly not the centre of the Earth.

According to Slijepčević, modern human civilisation, though technologically advanced, is unsustainable in ways that ancient biocivilisations were not. Humanity must cultivate humility and learn from these enduring systems if we are to survive and coexist with the biosphere.

The past century has been catastrophic for biodiversity, with widespread decimation of animal species. Today, the animal kingdom constitutes only around 2 per cent of the biosphere, while plants and bacteria dominate. Life on Earth is violent and dynamic, alternating between periods of stability and instability. History has witnessed five mass extinctions, and we are now in the midst of a sixth, accelerated by the Industrial Revolution. Bacteria, remarkably, may be the only form of life that cannot be extinguished, having survived all previous mass extinctions. Should humans cease to exist, the biosphere would continue largely unchanged; without bacteria, however, there would be no life at all.

The author draws on fascinating examples: bacteria exhibit communication, engineering, and collective intelligence; ants and termites build complex nests, cultivate fungus, manage livestock, and maintain city-like organisation; slime moulds form intricate networks; pufferfish craft elaborate sand patterns; trees, whales, and other species display medical behaviour, artistry, memory, and environmental tuning. The book also explores the microbiome and psychobiome—bacterial communities that influence human brain development during foetal growth.

In conclusion, listening to Biocivilisations felt like being handed a new lens through which to view the world. It was especially immersive because I was constantly in nature, surrounded by plants, humans, animals, insects, and the invisible world of microorganisms—the very subject of the book—which made me notice patterns and connections I would normally overlook.

[JadersCorner · Rating 1 out of 5]

NetGalley arc review


DNF DNF

I got to the first few pages, not a fan of AI or human AI or both together, so nope

[LilasLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars 🌟

Brilliant, compelling, fascinating, mind-blowing and thought-provoking.

This book took me back to that incredible sense of awe and wonder I felt when I first read 'The Hidden Life of Trees' by Peter Wohlleben. I could practically feel my mind being blown and my brain rewiring. Every time I went for a walk and looked at all of the plant life and trees around me I couldn’t help but notice that the same sights and sounds to which I was accustomed had developed more depth, new dimensions and were exploding with colour. My perspective had been irrevocably changed, as was the case again after reading 'Biocivilisations'. Not only was I left gaping at the thought of a planet-wide bacterial communication network and the fact that ants have mobile army surgical hospitals, but I couldn’t help but be thoroughly impressed by Slijepčević's brilliant writing and refreshing and insightful perspective.

We say that wisdom comes with age and yet we Homo sapiens, mere evolutionary foetuses, pride ourselves on some superior sense of wisdom. One only has to look at the way in which we seem to be striving towards our own destruction to truly see how little wisdom we have to speak of. I loved that this book confronted assumptions of human omnipotence and the belief that we are superior to nature, as if we ourselves are not just another mere part of nature floating along the river of life. The author very helpfully situates Homo sapiens along the continuum of life, on which our existence is revealed to only account for 0.01% of time. Our insignificance relative to the grandeur of life and evolution is both reassuring and embarrassing. Reassuring because if we bury our heads in the sand long enough to wholly self-destruct, life, as it did for 99.9% of its existence, will in fact continue without us, and embarrassing because believing otherwise only acts as further evidence of our naivety and exaggerated sense of self-importance.

Similarly, this book opened my mind to the fact that many phenomena we consider uniquely human are, in fact, not. We aren’t the only communicators, engineers, scientists, doctors, artists, and farmers and importantly, we are not the only life forms capable of creating civilisations.

I was also completely invested in her bold discussions about the tendency of western biology to fall into reductionist and mechanistic patterns of thinking and her challenging of the ever pervasive gene theory. Life cannot be humbled by mere genes and codes. Its uncertain yet sophisticated artistry cannot be understood through a lens of mechanistic rationalism. Attempting to do so leaves us admiring the epistemological chains that bind us to faulty and inadequate theoretical perspectives and blind to the true genius of artful biology and the wonder of Gaian science.

The vast majority of this book felt surprisingly accessible, however, admittedly, there were some small sections that flew over my head, but that may have also just been a result of my over-tired uni brain.

It's always a good sign when I find my hands itching to highlight everything and fill the margins with my notes. But alas, I have to wait for the book to actually be released to get my hands on it!

Overall, a fantastic and unforgettable read. 100% recommend, especially for science lovers!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy upon request. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, this book is a compendium of thought from a Gaia and eco-evo-devo enthusiast -which I also am-, but not much more than that. I mean, of course it's interesting, but again if you're into this topic I guess you'll already have read something either about Margulis and Lovelock's Gaia or about Scott Gilbert and Haraway on the holobiont. With this, I don't mean this isn't a good book... it may be a game changer for someone who has never heard about these topics. The author didn't add anything new to the discussion, and he just seemed to be a bit too much of a fan and too little of an academic. I know, I know, it's fucking exciting that all other beings are alive, have minds on their own, cultures on their own -didn't the Achuar tribe say so, ever since the dawn of time?-, and I'm not going to tell you to calm down, but when one writes a book, one acquires somewhat of a promise to give an insight to a topic... or at least I thought. Besides, I thought it was extremely RUDE to not do any reference at all to HARAWAY and SIMPOIESIS or the HOLOBIONT, but instead talking about AUTOPOIESIS. Lord have Mercy.

[Heather Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just reviewed Biocivilisations by Predrag B. Slijepčević. #Biocivilisations #NetGalley

“What I cannot create, I do not understand” - Richard Feynman

Phew! This book is just filled with so much information. It definitely took me a while to get through. But I was able to get it down to the basics so you can see if it will interest you.

According to author, Biocivilization is the emergence of wiring between organisms and their environments that fills the biological world with meaning.

Three parts
1. Beyond Humans - about humanity’s views of the biological world and our planetary dominance. But it has been proven that microbes are in fact the dominant environmental force on Earth.
2. Brave New World - the story of biocivilizations. This is a challenge to the kind of futurism that is based on mechanistic science.
3. Looking Forward - the author argues for a new school of thought in the science of life.

All in all, a very informative read. Personally I enjoyed Part 1 the best. It was definitely the most enjoyable.

[Paul Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't as eye-opening as I hoped it was going to be. There are some great examples of how the aspects of human civilization that we often claim as so unique to our superiority have actually been present from other lifeforms for (sometimes) millions of years.

The thing that I found frustrating with this book was how the author continues to separate humans from the rest of life on our planet. Yes, we are merely a blip in the time of this planet. Yes, I think we as humans should occupy this space with more awareness of all the other life that has come before us and continues to live today. But, we are also part of that continued evolution of life. We are the beings we are because of all those who came before.

I do recommend this book. there are so many great examples of life that came before us that organized and evolved in magnificent ways.

[Martina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book resonated deeply with parts of my intellect that are rarely tapped. It felt like a wondrous journey into a realm I always sensed existed, but needed a guide to help me explore. Part science and part magical mystery tour de force, and a much needed antidote to Antrhopocentric narrow-minded view of "civilisation."

[Hana Gabrielle (HG) Bidon · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is different from what I usually read in nonfiction books, I picked this one up because it seemed interesting. This book informed me a great deal about biodiversity and survival of the fittest in the world.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biocivilisations locates supposed human achievements amongst a wide range of organisms and is a book that is as fascinating as it is frustrating. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2024...

[Lisa Grønsund]

I received an advanced digital copy of this book, courtesy of the author and publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

RTC

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life by Predrag B Slijepčević is a new and all-encompassing way to view life, drawing on what we already know but approached from a different perspective.

I love the life sciences and while I have taken some courses to help me better understand I am far from being a scientist. I mention this because this is one of those books that will appeal to both scientists and lay people such as myself. That said, it will take an active reading, we are asked to understand principles a little deeper than just a basic statement. But the reward is great.

I am hesitant to try to explain too much simply because I don't think I could do it justice. So I will give what I took away on this first reading (yes, this is one of those books that will get better with each reading).

Using a broader definition and understanding of what 'civilization' means, we are led through the ways nature has long been civilizing the world and the environment. As we come to appreciate how everything from bacteria to complete ecosystems have organized themselves it becomes easier to see that humans are not, and have never been, THE civilizing force in the world. In fact, we were late to the party.

With this information, we are asked to reconsider how we interact with the world around us. Not for some ethical sake, though treating the rest of nature with respect sure seems ethical to me, but because our survival may well depend on it. Leaving behind our narrow idea of civilization as a human construct only, we have an opportunity, though we have a narrow window, to work toward a sustainable (I hate to use that often overworked and misrepresented term) type of organized world, one where we quit thinking our technology will somehow make better what our technology has already made worse.

I highly recommend this to both scientists and lay people who care about the future of, well, everything. Don't let my shaky explanation of the book keep you from exploring the ideas presented. You will likely come to your own understanding.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[John Workman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately I had to give this book three stars because I believe there was too much hand-waving over some of the fundamental ideas within the middle of this book and ultimately because of that I think there is a deeper connection and deeper argument to make. But the opening was gripping and the finale was fantastic. The scientific and philosophical content inside is easily a 4 star book but the way it was addressed felt clunky and at times superficial. That being said I believe the story told in this book is an imperative and mandatory read for anyone who wants to understand the (hopefully) coming shift in academic philosophy through a humbling of "the apex predator"

[Inma · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! What started as a curious-with-reticences reading, has become a joyful companion filled with references that made me explore beyond the actual book and discover a whole world of ideas that have left an even more curios approach to our future, the human future, as species, giving me some hope and opening possibilities based on a shift toward humility. It is not that I wasn't aware of this, it is more that, somehow this book, together with other books, many of them referenced by the author, and my own intuition, clears the path ahead, which somehow brings hope to the hopeless me. If you have children, I would recommend to read this book with them, inviting them in the journey of understanding... well I don't want to spoil your experience, but it has something to do with 'our urge to affiliate with other forms of life' E.O. Wilson.