Earthchild: Glories of the Asphyxiated Spectrum

by Warren M. Brodey

white and pink cover with pink text and a face girl's face done in pink

166 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1974

Reviews

[Osiris Oliphant]

A structurally defiant relic of 1970s countercultural cybernetics, Earthchild: Glories of the Asphyxiated Spectrum is Warren M. Brodey's radical manifesto for a new human-environment interface. Drawing on his background as a psychiatrist and his work with blind children, Brodey weaves together poetry, collage, and cybernetic theory to warn of a world 'asphyxiated' by its own technical illusions.

A central theme is restoring the "growth expertise of childhood". Brodey believed that by learning from children—and specifically his work with blind children—society could develop soft technologies and intelligent environments modeled on the principles of life itself.

The book warns of the nearly terminal condition of humanity caused by the separation of fact from value. It advocates for a species-enhancing way of living that depollutes our information environment with life-enhancing values.

Brodey was a key figure at MIT and collaborated with thinkers like Avery Johnson at the Environmental Ecology Lab. His ideas in Earthchild represent a "watershed between ecological and non-ecological thinking."

Featuring a collage by Andrew Poynor and photography by Fred Wetherbee and Brian Nevitt.