Table of
Contents:
- Recommended
Reading List
- Links
- Future-based
essays
Recommended
Reading List
Probably the last thing you want to see more of is yet another list of
books to read! However, you will gain the most from FutureSoc by
reading these books as they will make the lectures much more
understandable. You will also find them extremely useful for essay
writing, however
please
note that if you base more than a quarter of an essay on
anything in these books, you run a strong risk of getting very low
marks. On the other hand, it has been found that if you reuse the
thinking rather than the content of these books, you tend to do very
well. Below is a collection of essays using Future-based content with
their marks, and as you will see they can vary widely.
- The
Web Of
Life by Fritjof
Capra (1997)
Probably more than any other single book, this very famous book lies at
the core of the Future movement. Written by a subatomic particle
physicist from the perspective of a scientist, this book summarises the
history of the New Way of Thinking and explores many of the theories
underpinning a new, holistic way of interpreting the Universe including
Complexity Theory, Gaia Theory, chaos theory, fractals, self-organsing
systems,
dissipative chemical structures theory, autopoetical systems, the
Santiago Theory of Cognition, the Bootstrap synthesis of quantum
physics and biology.
This book is always read by our book reading club every first semester
as rereading it offers as much as reading it the first time. The only
failing it has is a few mistakes due to its age as well as being
significantly out of date. All other books by Fritjof Capra are also
worth reading, with earlier ones being a good illustration of how his
opinion has formed over the years and more recent ones detailing more
recent advances.
- Natural
Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution by
Paul Hawkin et al (2000)
This book summarises how by treating industrial and social systems as a
whole, very substantial efficiency gains can be made often in the range
of 40x over current practice. This book is on the required reading list
of one of the 4th year Management modules. One criticism in our view is
that it is too technologically orientated and does not encompass the
reality of inertia which make many of its proposals difficult or
unrealistic to implement, but it does show how much can be achieved by
simply changing how you look at a problem.
- Capitalism
-
As If The World Matters by Jonathan Porritt
(2005)
A summary of the state of the Future movement internationally with a
bias towards the UK, this book is an excellent break down by one of the
leading members of Forum
for the Future of with whom the Future movement is
interacting as well as the progress which has already been achieved.
The only problem is that the book is basically a long list of
achievements and is somewhat dry to read.
- You
Are,
Therefore I Am by Satish Kumar (2002)
Coming at the Future movement from a spiritual and Eastern religion
perspective, this book by "the sage of the deep ecology movement" and
editor of Resurgence magazine is excellent
for the first three quarters of the book, after which it wanders a bit.
Satish Kumar was one of our guest lecturers in 2005/2006 and all
attendees agreed it was one of the best lectures they had ever attended.
- Gödel
Escher Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas
Hofstadtler (1979)
An old and very famous book with many of its conclusions broken by more
recent research, this is a book weaving logic, mathematics, music and
art together into cohesive whole. Despite many of its conclusions being
wrong, the process through which it takes the reader is an invaluable
thought exercise. Prospective readers should note that this book is
difficult and should only be undertaken by those people willing to
invest substantial time and effort. This book tends to be on the
reading list of 4th year advanced logic modules.
- Butterfly
Economics by Paul
Ormerod (1998)
More of interest to those interested in Economics, one of Britain's
leading Economists and one of the world leaders in the
movement for reform of Economics, explains how he foresees
how new Economic thinking will work. Paul Ormerod was one of our guest
lecturers in 2005/2006. His previous book Death of Economics
is an excellent summary of the substantial failings of existing
Economic thinking, most especially the Neo-Classical model.
- Does
God Play
Dice? by Ian Stewart (1997)
An excellent explanation and illustration of the mathematics
underpinning the New Way of Thinking, this book is essential reading
for anyone interested in non-linear mathematics such as chaos theory,
fractal topologies and practical applications of these mathematics.
Links
Future-based
essays
The following essays have been submitted by students for various St.
Andrews University modules. As you will see, the marks vary widely
which should serve as a warning
to those thinking of using material recommended here in essays:
- Essay
for
ID2003 module (on the coming paradigm shift) by Niall Douglas
(scored a 5.0, the lowest possible grade before failing)
- A
letter by Niall Douglas to a friend in need on applying the New Way
of Thinking to
personal development
- Essay
for PY1102 module on how the beauty and order in the
Universe provides evidence of God's existence by Niall Douglas (scored a 16.0,
a high 2.1)
- Essay for MN3102 module on multi-rationality and multi-paradigm decision making by Niall Douglas (scored 15.0, a mid 2.1)
- What is Humanity's Worst Invention by Patrick Leckie
- Article for Resurgence Magazine on the History of Money & Wealth by Niall Douglas
If you have an essay you would like to be submitted here, please send
it to us at
.
