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GAIA: THE HUMAN JOURNEY FROM CHAOS TO COSMOS
The first popularly written explanation of the scientific theory galvanizing both New Age and scientific the GAIA Hypothesis.
252 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2008
Stunning. Couldn't put it down.
This book is a history of the Earth as a living being--her changes in homeostasis, for example: the shift of the dominant gas from carbon to oxygen and how Gaia transitioned similar situations.
Sahtouris first wrote it as a scientist and then pared it down to a children's story. She then built it back up to this slender scientific tome, "Gaia: The Human Journey From Chaos to Cosmos." I think it's a breathtakingly beautiful story, told boldly and with a wonderfully articulate and transparent clarity. I truly loved it.
This book is a history of the Earth as a living being--her changes in homeostasis, for example: the shift of the dominant gas from carbon to oxygen and how Gaia transitioned similar situations.
Sahtouris first wrote it as a scientist and then pared it down to a children's story. She then built it back up to this slender scientific tome, "Gaia: The Human Journey From Chaos to Cosmos." I think it's a breathtakingly beautiful story, told boldly and with a wonderfully articulate and transparent clarity. I truly loved it.
August 18, 2017
This is an opportunity to gain a completely new perspective on our species, our planet & evolution. Just imagine if people reconnected to the wisdom of billions of years, and learned to live cooperatively & harmoniously within the greater framework of life in our universe.
What I liked about Elisabet's writing was her storytelling capacity for complex information, and her research & references to multiple sciences & belief systems. She really educated me in such a clear way about evolution (after 6 years of college level sciences). And it was utterly fascinating!
What I didn't like was how long it took me to reread & reread, because it was so chock full of information and I wanted to absorb it all! Okay, that's not really a complaint. There were a few areas where I saw her bias surface, though she usually turned it around to show a more open-minded perspective at some point, or at least other perspectives. And I was disappointed about 2/3 through when she began to repeat things & travel in a circular pattern...not that I couldn't make sense of it or understand her organization of the information, just that I would have preferred less repetition for clarity.
What I learned:
LOL, yeah, I'm going to have to fill this in bit by bit, because it took me 2 months to read 250 pgs! Normally, that takes me a day...
So, how often do we think of bacteria as anything other than a microbe that makes us sick? I don't think I will EVER think of bacteria that way again! They were the first to figure everything out, and have been doing it for billions of years. They are the evolutionists. They will survive if we screw everything up. And they are what made us (not from a religious perspective). We are not at the top of the food chain. We are a new species with a few unique characteristics, an experiment in conscious choice. We cannot live without bacteria. PERIOD.
Oooh! And isn't cool that they share DNA?! Which totally explains antibiotic resistance! "Dude, here have some DNA, in case you come across this nasty killer; you're welcome!"
Basically, every science is flawed; there were better theories, more accurate, more time-tested, but humans chose a theory of 'machine' to explain & describe 'life,' primarily as a way to describe the system the powerful/rich wanted us to follow. This one is a mind-blower, and is explored throughout the entire book, so I won't try to package it in a nutshell.
When you think about dinosaurs, you think about how they went extinct. Yet they were successful for millions of years LONGER than we have been, and they didn't cause the third mass extinction of the planet (or even their own)! Are we going to be a tiny blip in the history of this planet due to violent competition & exploitation of it's resources? Or, are we going to get over our adolescence, as in, grow up, already, and live in cooperative harmony & true equality, as we did for the first 4/5ths of human existence on Earth?
What I liked about Elisabet's writing was her storytelling capacity for complex information, and her research & references to multiple sciences & belief systems. She really educated me in such a clear way about evolution (after 6 years of college level sciences). And it was utterly fascinating!
What I didn't like was how long it took me to reread & reread, because it was so chock full of information and I wanted to absorb it all! Okay, that's not really a complaint. There were a few areas where I saw her bias surface, though she usually turned it around to show a more open-minded perspective at some point, or at least other perspectives. And I was disappointed about 2/3 through when she began to repeat things & travel in a circular pattern...not that I couldn't make sense of it or understand her organization of the information, just that I would have preferred less repetition for clarity.
What I learned:
LOL, yeah, I'm going to have to fill this in bit by bit, because it took me 2 months to read 250 pgs! Normally, that takes me a day...
So, how often do we think of bacteria as anything other than a microbe that makes us sick? I don't think I will EVER think of bacteria that way again! They were the first to figure everything out, and have been doing it for billions of years. They are the evolutionists. They will survive if we screw everything up. And they are what made us (not from a religious perspective). We are not at the top of the food chain. We are a new species with a few unique characteristics, an experiment in conscious choice. We cannot live without bacteria. PERIOD.
Oooh! And isn't cool that they share DNA?! Which totally explains antibiotic resistance! "Dude, here have some DNA, in case you come across this nasty killer; you're welcome!"
Basically, every science is flawed; there were better theories, more accurate, more time-tested, but humans chose a theory of 'machine' to explain & describe 'life,' primarily as a way to describe the system the powerful/rich wanted us to follow. This one is a mind-blower, and is explored throughout the entire book, so I won't try to package it in a nutshell.
When you think about dinosaurs, you think about how they went extinct. Yet they were successful for millions of years LONGER than we have been, and they didn't cause the third mass extinction of the planet (or even their own)! Are we going to be a tiny blip in the history of this planet due to violent competition & exploitation of it's resources? Or, are we going to get over our adolescence, as in, grow up, already, and live in cooperative harmony & true equality, as we did for the first 4/5ths of human existence on Earth?
March 18, 2017
Ένα βιβλιο φωτεινό κι ελπιδοφόρο για το μέλλον του " ανθρώπινου σώματος" μέσα στο σώμα της μάνας Γαίας. Ένα βιβλίο εκλαϊκευμένης επιστήμης για όλους τους σκεπτόμενους ανθρώπους που ως ολότητες μέσα στην ολότητα του ανθρώπινου σώματος θα θελήσουν με τόλμη και έμπνευση να ασκήσουν την ελευθερία των πολλαπλών επιλογών για την επιβίωση του ανθρώπινου είδους μέσα στην ζωντανή ολότητα που λέγεται Γαία! Η Σαχτούρη αποδεικνύει τι χάνει η ανθρωπότητα που σκέφτεται με βάση την ανδρική μηχανιστική κοσμοθεωρία και πόσο κινδυνεύει απο την πρακτική της εφαρμογή στην επιστήμη, την θρησκεία, την πολιτική και την οικονομία! Εξαιρετικό πόνημα !!!
April 10, 2020
Very interesting view of earth as a system and in the light of the Covid 19 pandemic, the author raises some interesting and very relevant points about humankind and our use and abuse of the planet. A lot of detail, both historical, physical and biological and contains what must be one of the earliest references to memes.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews