Manifesto for a Species: Our Own

by Lee Doran

Overview

Is humanity on the brink of extinction? Many reputable scientists and some of the best minds on the planet are worried. If the prospect has captured their attention, it behooves the rest of us to listen up, as well.

In this book we explore why humanity, the human species, could be on the road to extinction. What is it about the species' own behavior that has put it on this path? What features of the human mind and body, as well as our life in groups, define this journey? How might we think and act differently to prevent or slow the descent into the almost unimaginable levels of suffering such a trip implies?

Manifesto for a Species finds answers to these questions in how human beings live in groups. Our life as social beings is arguably one of our most characteristic features, as well as one of the most pleasurable. Yet, as human groups expanded in size and organized to carry out their goals, hierarchical and often violent behaviors emerged. Since technologies were also evolving, the groups found themselves on a treadmill of escalating violence. The result was the endless series of conflicts that make up human history. Must the future of humanity replay this past?

Join the discussion on the human future. Read the Manifesto and comment on its contents. Then, consider how you might contribute to preventing humanity's drift towards extinction in your own world and life. Your species' future may depend upon it.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940011235276
Publisher:	Lee Doran
Publication date:	03/10/2011
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	79 KB

About the Author

In my working life, I am an environmental consultant. Daily, I learn the mechanics of how everything is connected to everything else in the natural world. About twenty years ago, I began to read and research independently on the science of the human species, Homo sapiens. I read sociologists and historians, biologists and psychologists, even economists and political scientists.

The more I read, the more it seemed to me that all these specialists on humanity were dancing to the same tune -- except that they were in different rooms. And the rooms, strangely, weren't connected to one another. Picture it: sociologists dancing with sociologists in the study; biologists dancing with biologists in the den; psychologists dancing with psychologists in the attic. But none of them ever left their own rooms, or even communicated very much with people in other rooms.

So who was trying to connect these various reservoirs of human knowledge to one another? Very few people. Yet, isn't it important for the future of humanity that we have some integrated understanding of who and what we are? How can we manage ourselves as individuals or as a species if we don't even know who we are?

In my writings, I try to begin making those connections. Of course, we have much too much information, now, for any one person to complete such a task. But perhaps framing the building for the specialists to populate is an achievable, if immodest, goal. Perhaps introducing the dancers to their colleagues in the other rooms is a start. Getting everyone talking to one another, maybe, if not actually doing anything much together, yet.

Why don't you join the effort? Everyone can contribute something to this cause, for in the end many must agree before anything much can happen. I would love to hear how you think we should proceed.