Peter A. Corning's Books

Superorganism

Toward a New Social Contract for Our Endangered Species

By: Peter A. Corning

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Superorganism

Toward a New Social Contract for Our Endangered Species

By: Peter A. Corning

As evidence of our global survival crisis continues to mount, the expression 'too little, too late' comes to mind. We all live in an interdependent world which has an increasingly shared fate. We are participants in an emerging global 'superorganism' that is dependent on close cooperation. Indeed, positive synergy (cooperative effects) has been the key to our evolutionary success as a species. However, our ultimate fate is now in jeopardy. Going forward, we must either create a more effective global society (with collective self-governance) or our species will very likely be convulsed by mass starvation, waves of desperate migrants, and lethal social conflict. The greatest threat we may face is each other, and a regression into tribalism and violent conflict. This Element has a more hopeful prescription for a new global social contract. It is based on the many examples of superorganisms – socially organized species – in the natural world, and in evolution.

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Page Count

160

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

100940038X

ISBN 13

9781009400381

Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution And The Rise Of Humankind

By: Peter A Corning

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Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution And The Rise Of Humankind

By: Peter A Corning

Nothing about the evolution of biological complexity makes sense except in the light of synergy.' Peter Corning's new book is being hailed as a major contribution to what is perhaps the greatest shift in our understanding of evolution since The Origin of Species. It's a tour de force that takes us on a synergy-guided tour of the history of life. As Corning puts it, 'life on Earth has been a synergistic phenomenon from the get go.' Corning also shows how synergy has been a key to human evolution, including the rise of complex modern societies. 'Cooperation may have been the vehicle, but synergy was the driver.' As we now face a tipping point and another major transition in evolution, Corning offers us a synergy-based road-map to the future. 'One of the great take-home lessons from the epic of evolution is that cooperation produces synergy, and synergy is the way forward. The arc of evolution bends toward synergy.'Related Link(s)

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Page Count

302

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9813230959

ISBN 13

9789813230958

Nature's Magic

Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

By: Peter Corning

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Nature's Magic

Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

By: Peter Corning

In Nature's Magic Peter Corning states that synergy--a vaguely familiar term to many of us--has been a wellspring of creativity in the natural world and has played a key role in the evolution of cooperation and complexity at all levels, from physics and chemistry to the latest human technologies. The 'Synergism Hypothesis' asserts that synergy is more than a class of interesting and ubiquitous effects. It has also been a major causal agency in evolution; it represents a unifying explanation for biological complexity and represents a different perspective on the evolutionary process. In contrast to gene-centered theories, or postulates of self-organization and emergent 'laws' of complexity, the Synergism Hypothesis represents, in essence, an 'economic' (or bio-economic) theory of complexity. Peter A. Corning, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems in Palo Alto, California. He has published numerous research papers and articles and three previous books, one of which was a theoretical monograph on the role of synergy in evolution, The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution (McGraw-Hill, 1983).

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Page Count

464

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521825474

ISBN 13

9780521825474

Holistic Darwinism

Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution

By: Peter Corning

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Holistic Darwinism

Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution

By: Peter Corning

In recent years, evolutionary theorists have come to recognize that the reductionist, individualist, gene-centered approach to evolution cannot sufficiently account for the emergence of complex biological systems over time. Peter A. Corning has been at the forefront of a new generation of complexity theorists who have been working to reshape the foundations of evolutionary theory. Well known for his Synergism Hypothesis—a theory of complexity in evolution that assigns a key causal role to various forms of functional synergy—Corning puts this theory into a much broader framework in Holistic Darwinism, addressing many of the issues and concepts associated with the evolution of complex systems. Corning's paradigm embraces and integrates many related theoretical developments of recent years, from multilevel selection theory to niche construction theory, gene-culture coevolution theory, and theories of self-organization. Offering new approaches to thermodynamics, information theory, and economic analysis, Corning suggests how all of these domains can be brought firmly within what he characterizes as a post–neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis.

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Page Count

555

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226116336

ISBN 13

9780226116334

Nature's Magic

Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

By: Peter Corning

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Nature's Magic

Synergy in Evolution and the Fate of Humankind

By: Peter Corning

Nature's Magic presents a bold vision of the evolutionary process from the Big Bang to the 21st century. Synergy of various kinds is not only a ubiquitous aspect of the natural world but it has also been a wellspring of creativity and the 'driver' of the broad evolutionary trend toward increased complexity, in nature and human societies alike. But in contrast with the many theories of emergence or complexity that rely on some underlying force or 'law', the 'Synergism Hypothesis', as Peter Corning calls it, is in essence an economic theory of biological complexity; it is fully consistent with mainstream evolutionary biology. Corning refers to it as Holistic Darwinism. Among the many important insights that are provided by this new paradigm, Corning presents a scenario in which the human species invented itself; synergistic, behavioral and technological innovations were the 'pacemakers' of our biological evolution. Synergy has also been the key to the evolution of complex modern societies, he concludes.

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Page Count

476

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

113944218X

ISBN 13

9781139442183

Book's by Peter A. Corning

Superorganism

Superorganism

Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution And The Rise Of Humankind

Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution And The Rise Of Humankind

Nature's Magic

Nature's Magic

Holistic Darwinism

Holistic Darwinism

Nature's Magic

Nature's Magic

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