Main Ideas of the book in points:
- An Unfolding New Vision of Reality- Social Implications for Cultural Transformation
- A Vision in which Life is at the very center
- Replacing mechanistic Cartesian worldview
- New Ways to Think of Life (New Perceptions - New Language - New Concepts)
- Processes and Patterns of the Organization of Living Things – The Hidden Connection between phenomena
- Complexity Theory
- Science of Complexity
- Nonlinear Dynamics
- Characteristics of A Living System (Gaia Theory) James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis
• Social Reality Evolved from a Biological World, 2-4 million years ago
– Southern Apes
• The Cellular View
– Internal Simplicity – biochemistry is simple
– Ecological Simplicity – few demands on external environment
• No Organism exists in isolation
• Metabolism occurs within a cell’s boundary
– A chemical network is created
• These networks appear wherever and whenever there is life
• Living networks continually create or recreate themselves
– Through Transformation or Replacement of Components
• Life has arisen from an unbroken continuation of the autopoetic network of the first DNA
• Life has unfolded over 3 billion years in a uninterrupted process –
• Energy flow yields instability – Bifurcation Point
– Elements can branch into new structures and new orders emerge
- Santiago Theory p34
• Cognition – the activity of self-generation, and self-perpetuation of living networks. Maturana and Varela
• Life and Cognition are inseparable – perception, emotion, behavior
• Autopoesis – self-generation of living networks
• Environment may trigger structural change, it does not specify or dictate them
- Communication
• Maturana states that COMMUNICATION is not transmission of information
• Rather, it is coordination of behavior between living organisms, through mutual structural couplings
• When there is communication about communication -- language arises
- A New View
-Reluctance of scientists to address subjective phenomena is part of the Cartesian heritage – the essential division between mind and matter
- In no way does this imply giving up any scientific rigor
- Consciousness Study p43
- Traditional – does not address non-linear dynamics
- Functionalism – denies conscious experience is an irreducible emergent phenomenon
- Mysterians – neglect viewing consciousness as a process, nor appreciate nature of the emergent phenomenon
- Neurophenomenology – true science of experience will partner with natural science
- AHA
- With Systems Thinking we observe:
o A Fundamental Unity of Life
o Different Living Systems Exhibit Similar Patterns of Organization
- Applying our knowledge of life patterns and principles of organization with living networks WORKS for social realities
- Power - Galbraith
• Coercive Power – win by inflicting or threatening sanctions
• Compensatory Power – offer incentives or rewards
• Conditioned Power – Change beliefs through persuasion and education (the art of politics)
“Education is the ability to perceive hidden connections between phenomena” Vaclav Havel.
“The great challenge of the twenty-first century will be to change the value system underlying the global economy, so as to make it compatible with the demands of human dignity and ecological sustainability. “The Hidden Connections — A Science for Sustainable Living”, Fritjof Capra
This is an exceptional book — the most valuable I have read in at least five years. It is a marvelous book for leaders or consultants who believe they need a systemic understanding of globalization, the threats and the opportunities it presents; how society and organizations actually adapt, transform and renew themselves; and how this process is best be led or encouraged. It will be of particular interest to employees interested in sustainability in the broadest sense who are engaged in helping any organization survive and thrive in the challenging conditions of the early 21st century.
In Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra applies aspects of complexity theory, particularly the analysis of networks, to global capitalism and the state of the world.
This book a is a type of Author's thoughts on complexity and the interconnectedness of all living things. For such a work it is easier to quote from the author: "My objective in the volume has been to develop a conceptual framework. Having a view of unified world and human "allow us to understand the spiritual dimension of life in way that is fully consistent with traditional conceptions of spirituality".
There are many books on globalization, sustainability, complexity, leadership and transformation. Quite a lot of the content was not new to me. What makes it exceptional is that Fritjof Capra takes a systemic view; like Meg Wheatley, his starting point is a study of life and how it works. The book is all embracing, radical, trustworthy, reflects the quality of an American man, not afraid to challenge the current state of global capitalism and its destructive effect on life and the mass of humanity. Unlike some, his book is not sensational, but it does not pull its punches. It explains to me why many well meaning initiatives are not likely to succeed.
"Learning" is a hidden connection in Capra’s The Hidden Connections. The book makes much of the "creation of knowledge." It recognizes that "knowledge creation is an individual process." It is a unique emergent property of the mind/brain of each individual. It comes from the networks of communities in which the individual is embedded. The value of the book is not in any formula given for creating learning communities. It is in the symbiotic feedback loops it calls for from which learning communities will emerge, and that will emerge from learning communities.
Capra sees "a system of education for sustainable living, based on ecoliteracy, at the primary and secondary school levels, . . . with a pedagogy that puts the understanding of life at it very center; and experience of life in the real world . . ." He notes "that life, from its beginning, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking."
For decades, advocates of sustainable development have recognized that we need to redesign our systems to be compatible with natural ecosystems. But what is it about nature that we actually want to emulate? How can we apply the operating principles by which life has sustained itself for the past 3.6 billion years to the design of human systems?
While implementing and testing the answers to these questions will be an ongoing process lasting generations, it is critical that in our time we at least establish a firm theoretical basis, a firm understanding of what we are trying to do. No one has laid a better groundwork for sustainability than Fritjof Capra.
It's about creating learning communities, but that is not it’s topic. Its topic is networking, or in Capra’s words "connections." It’s a comprehensive review of all cosmic networks that make up "life, mind, and society.".
In many respects this introductory part of the book feels very rushed. In attempting to summaries and synthesize the works of many others, (whom he credits without hesitation), Capra seems to flit from one thing to the next without going in to sufficient depth to fully explain. It may be a quibble, but a suggested further reading list might have been useful for the reader who is unfamiliar with, or wants to know more, about the thinking and theories that he describes.
Contemporary scientific discoveries indicate that all of life - from the most primitive cells, up to human societies, corporations and nation-states, even the global economy - is organized along the same basic patterns and principles: those of the network. However, the new global economy differs in important aspects from the networks of life: whereas everything in a living network has a function, globalizm ignores all that cannot give it an immediate profit, creating great armies of the excluded. The global financial network also relies on advanced information technologies - it is shaped by machines, and the resulting economic, social and cultural environment is not life-enhancing but life-degrading, in both a social and an ecological sense. This text demonstrates how tightly humans are connected with the fabric of life and makes it clear that it is imperative to organize the world according to a different set of values and beliefs, not only for the well-being of human organizations, but for the survival and sustainability of humanity as a whole.
Capra attempts to provide a conceptual framework that integrates the physical, cognitive and social dimensions in order to present a unified view of consciousness, society and life and also to develop a coherent and systemic approach to addressing the world's most pressing problems.
Assuming no knowledge of the subject, Capra opens the book with an all too brief introduction to complex adaptive systems, contrasting it favorably with the reductionist trend which remains dominant within the scientific community. The first part of the book looks at the origins of life, mind and consciousness and the nature of social reality, showing both that the network (and hence connectedness) are the central structure of life. He also shows that life, consciousness and society are emergent properties, in other words they are, in some senses, by-products of simpler processes embedded in the chemical and biological networks that are the building blocks of life.
In the first part he constructs a new theoretical framework by looking at the nature of life, the nature of consciousness and the nature of social reality. He deals extensively with networking that has become an important social phenomenon and a critical source of power in the world.
I think it is a stimulating book, which presents views and information of great interest, trying to address the reality of systemic manner, but on social issues is not consistently achieved, and returns to linear approaches.
However, it shows the enormous influence of public opinion and how technology is solving problems that triggered it. Throughout the book proposes that society should have a non-linear systems thinking. To do so, it explores the social implications of the latest scientific principles, reminding us that theoretical research in the history of thought was based on an online, however, from two decades ago, the revolution is beginning to implement the theory of complex mathematical processes. Capra posits that if we want to sustain life in the future, the laws that underlie our social institutions should be consistent with the organization that nature has developed to maintain its harmony.
Having introduced us to the main philosophical and scientific ideas which underpin his thinking, Capra then examines a number of topics in more detail, starting with leadership and organization. While it is interesting to see complexity theory applied to organizations, this section of the book read more like a trendy management manual than anything else. Given the fact that Capra spends a fair chunk of his time giving seminars and talks to senior managers and executives at major corporations, this should be no surprise. The message that he delivers may be uncomfortable to them, but it's not one that they don't want to hear. When he talks to them of employee empowerment he's certainly not talking about employee appropriation.
for long or make much of a difference because more radical, systemic changes are needed at a global level. It is also hopeful and constructive book, which gives information about innovations and developments that are helping humanity find its way through a crisis. It offers an understanding that is of practical use. It is beautifully written, full of clarity and quotable insights, best read slowly and relished for its quality. I end up feeling wiser, encouraged, inspired, clearer about what is likely to emerge, what has to be done and my part in it.
The Hidden Connections transcends intellectual barriers, overflows with groundbreaking ideas, and combines scholarly science with spirituality. It is a work of rare genius, true insight and great humanity.
That is precisely Capra's breakthrough in The Hidden Connections. He integrates the new biology with an even newer "science of sustainability," rooted in that biology. He shows how our cognitive and social functions are embedded in our biological reality and how we can use many of the same tools or perspectives to understand both.
Just as living systems generate their own structures regulated by a variety of physical laws, social systems generate structures based on common intentions and regulated by meaning. Socially generated structures might be material, cities for example, or they might be cultural or intellectual structures such as bodies of law. But for any socially generated structure to be sustainable, it must be based on the same operative principles that make biological systems sustainable—networking, diversification, nutrient recycling, and homeostasis (exact wording mine).
Throughout he draws on certain principles which are as applicable to the living cells of the smallest organisms as to business corporations and political structures. This indeed is concilience on the grandest scale. At root are ideas about self-generating networks among elements in a system, non-linear evolution, often producing the unexpected, and emergence of new forms of order out of apparent instability.
Part 1 Life, Mind and Society presents his study of nature and life; mind and consciousness and social reality – his new understanding has emerged from complexity theory, integrating studies of the external world, the social world of human relationships and the inner world of values and meaning. Applying knowledge of living networks in life to the social domain forms the basis for the next part. Part 2 The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century, contains four chapters which describe his understanding of Life and Leadership in Organizations (4), the Networks of Global Capitalism (5), Biotechnology at a Turning Point (6), Changing the Game (7) followed by an epilogue, Making Sense.
The Santiago Theory of Cognition formed a n essential part of the author's thought. The central insight of the Santiago Theory is the identification of cognition, the process of knowing, with the process of life. Cognition, according to Maturana and Varela, is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cognition is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of a living organism—plant, animal or human—with its environment are cognitive interactions. Thus life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind—or, more accurately, mental activity—is immanent in matter at all levels of life.
Capra addresses all types of topics from the origin of life, mind and consciousness, social reality, globalization, the problems of biotechnology, to point to a future in which technologies can solve seemingly intractable problems. Objectives are a bit ambitious, since it addresses the problem from a systems approach, which repeatedly contradicted From all this Capra develops the idea that "the interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions, and the process of living itself is a process of cognition." Here he uses cognition in the sense of ability to react to perturbations in the environment. Thus "mind and matter no longer appear to belong to two separate categories but can be seen as representing two complementary aspects of the phenomenon of life…At all levels of life, beginning with the simplest cell, mind and matter, process and structure, are inseparably connected". He goes on to show that throughout the history of life, where he quotes: Let us now return to the question "What is life?" and ask: How does a bacterial cell work? What are its defining characteristics? When we look at a cell under an electron microscope, we notice that its metabolic processes involve special macromolecules—very large molecules consisting of long chains of hundreds of atoms. Two kinds of these macromolecules are found in all cells: proteins and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). In the bacterial cell, there are essentially two types of proteins—enzymes, which act as catalysts of various metabolic processes, and structural proteins, which are part of the cell structure. In higher organisms, there are also many other types of proteins with specialized functions, such as the antibodies of the immune system or the hormones. Since most metabolic processes are catalyzed by enzymes and enzymes are specified by genes, the cellular processes are genetically controlled, which gives them great stability. The RNA molecules serve as messengers, delivering coded information for the synthesis of enzymes from the DNA, thus establishing the critical link between the cell's genetic and metabolic features. the planetary web has expanded through mutation, exchange of genes and symbiosis, producing forms of life of ever increasing complexity and diversity. Here are elements of Gaia theory.
All steps in cosmic evolution, as Capra clearly explains, result from simple entities linking to create more complex ones. The emergence of each new entity is the emergence of a physical or organizational form. With the new emergent system new properties or "qualia" also emerge that are not included in, nor predictable from, the component parts of the new system. Capra uses "sweetness" as a simple example. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen combine to create sugar. The emerging new physical entity has the emerging new unpredicted property or "qualia" of sweetness.
Similarly as the networking of genes produces DNA, a new "qualia" emerges that is more than just the connections of genes. It is this wholeness of this DNA network that determines the kinds of people we can become. As Capra masterfully points out, replacing one or more genes here or there in the complex DNA chain may, or may not, change that emergent
"qualia" of the person. In like manner, the "qualia" of mind, thinking or consciousness, emerges with the emergence of the neural networks of the brain.
Author having a special view towards prospective on the life, he is considering 3 prospective: The synthesis is based on the distinction between two perspectives on (the nature of living systems, which I have called the "pattern perspective" and the "structure perspective,") and on their integration by means of a third perspective, the "process perspective." More specifically, I have defined the pattern of organization of a living system as the configuration of relationships among the system's components that determines the system's essential characteristics, the structure of the system as the material embodiment of its pattern of organization, and the life process as the continual process of this embodiment. But he is trying later to explain his view towards meaning- the fourth prospective.
At this point there is only space left to give you some of the insights I most valued. Chapter 4, Life and Leadership in Organizations: Complexity, uncertainty and turbulence are the foremost characteristics of present-day society. The roots of the failures to bring about change in this complex society lie in the dual nature of organizations, on the one hand, designed for specific purposes and on the other, communities of people interacting and building relationships to help each other and make their activities meaningful. Part of the reason for failure, is not understanding that resistance reflects the need for a living system to be involved in change. Hence the leader needs to focus not on delivering change but how to involve people in its creation. It is so easy to forget this in the haste and urgency of life in organizations. The inherent change process of human organizations, as living systems, mirrors life, not the machine. They change and adapt in similar ways to life, through undergoing continual structural changes while preserving web-like patterns. Most of us are already well aware of the need to relax into uncertainty and confusion. It is a world in which the flexibility, creativity and learning capability that come with the organization's aliveness are most needed. "understanding of human organizations as living systems, is one of the fundamental challenges of our time". “Communities of practice” play an important part in self-generating, living networks. These share common purpose and meaning and have tacit rules of conduct. Here are some relevant extracts from which I gained the clearest understanding of “communities of practice”.
The second half of The Hidden Connections is devoted to applying Capra's new perspectives to a variety of pressing contemporary issues from globalization to biotechnology. He also discusses the concepts of ecoliteracy and ecodesign and puts forth a number of concrete proposals for "changing the game." So The Hidden Connections indeed does connect—theoretical constructs with practical proposals.
The second part explores the management of human organizations, i.e. why and how these are living systems; economic globalization; a systemic analysis of the ethical and scientific problems of biotechnology, with reference to the human genome project, and; the major problems facing the world today.
So much for the biology. Its application to human society is inevitably incomplete and somewhat awkward: but networking, non linear change, complexity and emergence of specific cultural identities are evident wherever we look. The same can be said to some degree about organizations and their management. But here the all too human search for top-down design can militate against natural forces. Managers like algorithms for success even if they do not exist. For many people machines are a better model than living organisms. No wonder therefore that so many modern organizations, including capitalism itself, is under strain.
Capra in this book expands some of his science/social analysis to link new concepts arising from brain research, genetics, neurobiology, and pioneering to the understanding of the cosmos and the natural laws society must obey if humanity is to continue to exist. He explains his idea through his quote: My extension of the systems approach to the social domain explicitly includes the material world. This is unusual, because traditionally social scientists have not been very interested in the world of matter. Our academic disciplines have been organized in such a way that the natural sciences deal with material structures while the social sciences deal with social structures, which are understood to be, essentially, rules of behavior. In the future, this strict division will no longer be possible, because the key challenge of this new century—for social scientists, natural scientists and everyone else—will be to build ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a way that their technologies and social institutions—their material and social structures—do not interfere with nature's inherent ability to sustain life. The design principles of our future social institutions must be consistent with the principles of organization that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life. A unified conceptual framework for the understanding of material and social structures will be essential for this task. The purpose of this book is to provide a first sketch of such a framework as I think.
“The aliveness of an organization – its flexibility, creative potential and learning capability – resides in its informal communities of practice. These are informal networks – alliances and friendships, informal channels of communication … and other tangled webs of relationships – that continually grow, change and adapt to new situations. We are dealing with the crucial difference between a living system and a machine. A machine can be controlled; a living system.... can only be disturbed. … They can be influenced by giving them impulses rather than instructions. Living systems always choose what to notice and how to respond. The most effective way to enhance an organization's learning potential is to strengthen its communities of practice.” (pp 95 to 101)
Leadership is crucially important in this process. “Being a leader means creating a vision; it means going where nobody has gone before. It also means enabling the community as a whole to create something new.” (p106)
In this situation, we need a clear understanding of the dual nature of change and leadership. There are two ways of creating the future. On the one hand, there are designed structures, which are first created in our imagination; on the other, there are emergent structures. The leader requires the right balance of design and emergence. He is wondering in a marvelous quote about organizations manager and life(p111): the more managers know about the detailed processes involved in self-generating social networks, the more effective they will be in working with the organization's communities of practice. Let us see, then, what kinds of lessons for management can be derived from the systemic understanding of life A living network responds to disturbances with structural changes, and it chooses both which disturbances to notice and how to respond. What people notice depends on who they are as individuals, an on the cultural characteristics of their communities of practice. A message will get through to them not only because of its volume or frequency, but because it is meaningful to them. Mechanistically oriented managers tend to hold on to the belief that they can control the organization if they understand how all its parts fit together. Even the daily experience that people's behavior contradicts their expectations does not make them doubt their basic assumption. On the contrary, it compels them to investigate the mechanisms of management in greater detail in order to be able to control them. We are dealing here with a crucial difference between a living system and a machine. A machine can be controlled; a living system, according to the systemic understanding of life, can only be disturbed. In other words, organizations cannot be controlled through direct interventions, but they can be influenced by giving impulses rather than instructions. To change the conventional style of management requires a shift of perception that is anything but easy, but it also brings great re- wards. Working with the processes inherent in living systems means that we do not need to spend a lot of energy to move an organization. There is no need to push, pull, or bully it to make it change. Force or energy are not the issue; the issue is meaning. Meaningful disturbances will get the organization's attention and will trigger structural changes.
In the second part Capra as well analyses the many shortcomings of global capitalism, using biotechnology, in particular the development of genetically modified organisms, as an example. He argues that globalization in its present form is the result of the computer revolution and the introduction of information technology into almost all aspects of human affairs. Such technology is machine philosophy and technology in their most extreme aspects. It goes with increasing exploitation of the earth's resources and corresponding damage to the environment, and can be seen most clearly in the shuttling back and forth of money world wide at unimaginable speeds. It is out of control of national governments, themselves with declining power, and even of most corporations and financial institutions. The result is not the sort of evolution associated with living organisms, but rather social alienation, increasing division between rich and poor, and cumulative damage to human values and cultural diversity.
Biotechnology at a Turning Point: gives an account of the failures of the green revolution and agribusiness and a cautionary lessons for us in exploiting biotechnology and genetic engineering in medicines and in agriculture. Once a systems view of life is embraced by scientists, there will be hope for the future.
Capra points out that, in an economy where "information processing innovation and knowledge creation are the main sources of productivity" (p.125), these self-educated workers.
Capra distinguishes between two kinds of worker:
the masses of workers who move in and out of jobs - replaced at any moment by machines or by labor in another part of the world. They are dependent on the fluctuations in the global financial networks, They are expendable - they have no access to information or knowledge beyond that required to carry out orders and
self educators - people who can access higher levels of education through their capacity to process information and to create knowledge.
And talking about the two kinds of leadership, Finding the right balance between design and emergence seems to require the blending of two different kinds of leadership. The traditional idea of a leader is that of a person who is able to hold a vision, to articulate it clearly and to communicate it with passion and charisma. It is also a person whose actions embody certain values that serve as a standard for others to strive for. The ability to hold a clear vision of an ideal form, or state of affairs, is something that traditional leaders have in common with designers. The other kind of leadership consists in facilitating the emergence of novelty. This means creating conditions rather than giving directions, and using the power of authority to empower others. Both kinds of leadership have to do with creativity. Being a leader means creating a vision; it means going where nobody has gone before. It also means enabling the community as a whole to create something new. Facilitating emergence means facilitating creativity. Holding a vision is central to the success of any organization, because all human beings need to feel that their actions are meaningful and geared toward specific goals. At all levels of the organization, people need to have a sense of where they are going. A vision is a mental image of what we want to achieve, but visions are much more complex than concrete goals and tend to defy expression in ordinary, rational terms. Goals can be measured, while vision is qualitative and much more intangible.
He gave an importance to the type of leadership that the experience of the critical instability that precedes the emergence of novelty may involve uncertainty, fear, confusion, or self-doubt. Experienced leaders recognize these emotions as integral parts of the whole dynamic and create a climate of trust and mutual support. In today’s turbulent global economy this is especially important, because people are often in fear of losing their jobs as a consequence of corporate mergers or other radical structural changes. This fear generates a strong resistance to change, hence building trust is essential.
The Networks of Global Capitalism: New technology, through the interaction between computers and financial markets, facilitated the rise of global capitalism leading to a global casino, huge instability and financial markets essentially out of control. The underlying value is that money-making, focus on profit and shareholder value, should always be valued higher than human needs and rights, democracy and the environment. This has produced a mania of mergers that fail to bring advantages in greater efficiency or profits and have dramatic effects on people and economic hardship. The new economy has transferred power from governments to large corporations, financial markets and a growing criminal economy. It has enriched a small elite and overall its social and economic effects have been disastrous, dismantling social welfare, creating rising inequality and poverty, huge threats to social stability, new diseases and growing threats to the he environment. If consumption in the third world reached American levels the annual damage to the environment would be 220 times present levels. Essentially, he believes the World Bank, World Trade Organization and IMF instead of producing a new order that would benefit all nations, serve this process of globalization and will need to be replaced. This form of globalization is socially and ecologically unsustainable.
Capra applies to analyzing problems are powerful in exposing the structures and activities of global capitalism, but at the end of the day there is a reluctance to address the nature of capitalism itself. Capra wants to reform capitalism not destroy it - with that proviso in mind this is still a book worth reading and thinking about. He that rejection of global capitalism and its values may have already begun. These values are linked to his concept of manliness. It describes how this is process is emerging, as one would expect in a living system, through networks, using new technology, creating new political power. The Alternatives Task Force and its report “Alternatives to Globalization” offers proposals for shifting.
government, global and national, from serving corporations to government serving people and communities. He describes about all kinds of innovations that many of us may not be fully unaware of and have the potential to transform the situation — changes in industrial production, transportation, food production and distribution, eco-design, localization, car design, eco-literacy, subsidies and taxation are all involved. Fortunately eco-design is good business. He describes the principles of ecology. Ecological principles are an essential component of the core values that form the basis for reshaping globalization. This reshaping will require changes in values, political will and operational rules.
Most people in the world have an intuitive understanding of the destructiveness of globalization and realize we are probably at a turning point. Through the glorification of material consumption and in other ways, America especially, wields tremendous power to maintain optimal conditions for the expansion of production. But instability, disturbances and breakdowns, which we are now facing, will lead to breakthroughs.
His analysis of the networks of global capitalism is a little more certain. He describes the rise of the networked economy, the automated trading of currency and stocks, the distributed nature of the economic grid. Quite rightly he describes a system that isn't controlled by any individual person, company, government or organization. But while it's out of control - an automaton as he puts it - it is also owned and serviced by a corporations and governments. To say that it's a monster that is out of control doesn't mean very much if you don't ask who profits from it's existence.
This book explains the situation with clarity, gives a deeper understanding of globalization, the process that has created it, how it will be reshaped and how we can help. It will give hope, a vital ingredient, and momentum to the radical changes that are most likely to emerge.
In looking at globalization the book returns once more to what he considers a key question, and that is the question of values. He views globalization, and the ills it produces, as being a primary consequence of a 'money is the measure of all things' mentality. Changing this value system becomes, therefore, the focus of attention. The examples he gives of communities that are engaging in ecologically conscious production are technologically inspiring, but they do not change the fundamental facts of class, economics and power.
"So what can we hope for the future of humanity?" asks Fritjof on the last two page, 233-
4, before quoting Vaclav Havel again: "The kind of hope that I often think about ... I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don't: it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation ...(Hope) is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but certainly that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
But this seems inevitably the weaker part of the book. It has long been obvious that the kind of society which has developed with industrialization is unsustainable in its present form, and cannot be extended as it is to the rest of the world. An eloquent statement on this point was made in the Amsterdam Declaration published after a conference of over a thousand scientists from the great global research programms in July last year. In short we know most of the problems, and we probably know most of the answers, including the application of different technologies and the creation of new and more appropriate international institutions. The difficulty is how to get from here to there. Radical change may already be on its way, but it remains mostly on the fringes. We still measure things wrongly, and here economists have a big responsibility. Unfortunately we may need a catastrophe or two to bring about the fundamental changes that are required.
Finally, in the last section of analysis he looks at bio-technology. For me this was by far the strongest section of the whole book. Capra tackles what he terms the 'central dogma' of which genetic engineering is based, that is the idea that individual genes directly determine biological traits and behaviors. In a sense genetic engineering is applied biological determinism. Capra tackles the issue head on, detailing the complex inter-relationships between genes, organism and the environment at large. Quoting extensively from those molecular biologists who are questioning this dogma, he shows not only that biological determinism, is simplistic and not supported by the scientific evidence, he also shows that bio-engineering and genetic modification are deeply suspect and dangerous technologies.
My only criticism of Capra's present work is that some of his theories are not developed enough. Even a reader who is well versed in contemporary systems theory and it's ramifications for sustainable design and development may want fuller explanations of some of his concepts. Following some of his arguments, lucidly presented though they are, will be difficult for those who are new to the field.
In a sense then, The Hidden Connections is truly seminal. It is the germ rather than the fully developed organism. This underdeveloped effect has its merits however. The reader is given an valuable infusion of ideas that are systematically, if somewhat sketchily tied together and with which he or she has the freedom to run in any number of directions. And Capra himself has his next work, should he choose to pursue it, cut out for him.
In spite of the minimalist nature of its discussion, however, Capra's book is such a marvelous synthesis, so far in advance of any work along similar lines, that it will set the standard for the development of sustainable thought for some time to come.
The author does a good job of pointing out the unified systems that integrate the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life and of explaining how a new vision of reality is unfolding, together with the social implications of this transformation.
From the outset I was utterly hooked, it was a completely compelling read. Fritjof Capra moves from and connects deep cellular biology and the origins of cellular life through philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, globalization, environmentalism, social theory and anthropology with both grace and beauty finishing with light, hope and the framework of a new way of thinking. Reading this book was a truly enlightening experience, it is highly accessible to all, and must surely rate as essential for all readers in the 21st century. The Hidden Connection inspires and educates, provokes thought and challenges the way we interact with the world and others, it is a truly awe-inspiring read that has the potential to change the way in which we live and view our planet.
After writing this book Capra considered arguably the leading expert in systems thinking in the world, he has integrated biological, cognitive, social, and metaphysical into a science of sustainability particularly as it applies to life in organizations, It is an exciting journey by way of biology, sociology, market economics and ecology, and arrives at conclusions which call for radical change in human society.
Hidden Connections is a great read. The book contains explanatory notes, a bibliography and an index.
- An Unfolding New Vision of Reality- Social Implications for Cultural Transformation
- A Vision in which Life is at the very center
- Replacing mechanistic Cartesian worldview
- New Ways to Think of Life (New Perceptions - New Language - New Concepts)
- Processes and Patterns of the Organization of Living Things – The Hidden Connection between phenomena
- Complexity Theory
- Science of Complexity
- Nonlinear Dynamics
- Characteristics of A Living System (Gaia Theory) James Lovelock & Lynn Margulis
• Social Reality Evolved from a Biological World, 2-4 million years ago
– Southern Apes
• The Cellular View
– Internal Simplicity – biochemistry is simple
– Ecological Simplicity – few demands on external environment
• No Organism exists in isolation
• Metabolism occurs within a cell’s boundary
– A chemical network is created
• These networks appear wherever and whenever there is life
• Living networks continually create or recreate themselves
– Through Transformation or Replacement of Components
• Life has arisen from an unbroken continuation of the autopoetic network of the first DNA
• Life has unfolded over 3 billion years in a uninterrupted process –
• Energy flow yields instability – Bifurcation Point
– Elements can branch into new structures and new orders emerge
- Santiago Theory p34
• Cognition – the activity of self-generation, and self-perpetuation of living networks. Maturana and Varela
• Life and Cognition are inseparable – perception, emotion, behavior
• Autopoesis – self-generation of living networks
• Environment may trigger structural change, it does not specify or dictate them
- Communication
• Maturana states that COMMUNICATION is not transmission of information
• Rather, it is coordination of behavior between living organisms, through mutual structural couplings
• When there is communication about communication -- language arises
- A New View
-Reluctance of scientists to address subjective phenomena is part of the Cartesian heritage – the essential division between mind and matter
- In no way does this imply giving up any scientific rigor
- Consciousness Study p43
- Traditional – does not address non-linear dynamics
- Functionalism – denies conscious experience is an irreducible emergent phenomenon
- Mysterians – neglect viewing consciousness as a process, nor appreciate nature of the emergent phenomenon
- Neurophenomenology – true science of experience will partner with natural science
- AHA
- With Systems Thinking we observe:
o A Fundamental Unity of Life
o Different Living Systems Exhibit Similar Patterns of Organization
- Applying our knowledge of life patterns and principles of organization with living networks WORKS for social realities
- Power - Galbraith
• Coercive Power – win by inflicting or threatening sanctions
• Compensatory Power – offer incentives or rewards
• Conditioned Power – Change beliefs through persuasion and education (the art of politics)
“Education is the ability to perceive hidden connections between phenomena” Vaclav Havel.
“The great challenge of the twenty-first century will be to change the value system underlying the global economy, so as to make it compatible with the demands of human dignity and ecological sustainability. “The Hidden Connections — A Science for Sustainable Living”, Fritjof Capra
This is an exceptional book — the most valuable I have read in at least five years. It is a marvelous book for leaders or consultants who believe they need a systemic understanding of globalization, the threats and the opportunities it presents; how society and organizations actually adapt, transform and renew themselves; and how this process is best be led or encouraged. It will be of particular interest to employees interested in sustainability in the broadest sense who are engaged in helping any organization survive and thrive in the challenging conditions of the early 21st century.
In Hidden Connections, Fritjof Capra applies aspects of complexity theory, particularly the analysis of networks, to global capitalism and the state of the world.
This book a is a type of Author's thoughts on complexity and the interconnectedness of all living things. For such a work it is easier to quote from the author: "My objective in the volume has been to develop a conceptual framework. Having a view of unified world and human "allow us to understand the spiritual dimension of life in way that is fully consistent with traditional conceptions of spirituality".
There are many books on globalization, sustainability, complexity, leadership and transformation. Quite a lot of the content was not new to me. What makes it exceptional is that Fritjof Capra takes a systemic view; like Meg Wheatley, his starting point is a study of life and how it works. The book is all embracing, radical, trustworthy, reflects the quality of an American man, not afraid to challenge the current state of global capitalism and its destructive effect on life and the mass of humanity. Unlike some, his book is not sensational, but it does not pull its punches. It explains to me why many well meaning initiatives are not likely to succeed.
"Learning" is a hidden connection in Capra’s The Hidden Connections. The book makes much of the "creation of knowledge." It recognizes that "knowledge creation is an individual process." It is a unique emergent property of the mind/brain of each individual. It comes from the networks of communities in which the individual is embedded. The value of the book is not in any formula given for creating learning communities. It is in the symbiotic feedback loops it calls for from which learning communities will emerge, and that will emerge from learning communities.
Capra sees "a system of education for sustainable living, based on ecoliteracy, at the primary and secondary school levels, . . . with a pedagogy that puts the understanding of life at it very center; and experience of life in the real world . . ." He notes "that life, from its beginning, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking."
For decades, advocates of sustainable development have recognized that we need to redesign our systems to be compatible with natural ecosystems. But what is it about nature that we actually want to emulate? How can we apply the operating principles by which life has sustained itself for the past 3.6 billion years to the design of human systems?
While implementing and testing the answers to these questions will be an ongoing process lasting generations, it is critical that in our time we at least establish a firm theoretical basis, a firm understanding of what we are trying to do. No one has laid a better groundwork for sustainability than Fritjof Capra.
It's about creating learning communities, but that is not it’s topic. Its topic is networking, or in Capra’s words "connections." It’s a comprehensive review of all cosmic networks that make up "life, mind, and society.".
In many respects this introductory part of the book feels very rushed. In attempting to summaries and synthesize the works of many others, (whom he credits without hesitation), Capra seems to flit from one thing to the next without going in to sufficient depth to fully explain. It may be a quibble, but a suggested further reading list might have been useful for the reader who is unfamiliar with, or wants to know more, about the thinking and theories that he describes.
Contemporary scientific discoveries indicate that all of life - from the most primitive cells, up to human societies, corporations and nation-states, even the global economy - is organized along the same basic patterns and principles: those of the network. However, the new global economy differs in important aspects from the networks of life: whereas everything in a living network has a function, globalizm ignores all that cannot give it an immediate profit, creating great armies of the excluded. The global financial network also relies on advanced information technologies - it is shaped by machines, and the resulting economic, social and cultural environment is not life-enhancing but life-degrading, in both a social and an ecological sense. This text demonstrates how tightly humans are connected with the fabric of life and makes it clear that it is imperative to organize the world according to a different set of values and beliefs, not only for the well-being of human organizations, but for the survival and sustainability of humanity as a whole.
Capra attempts to provide a conceptual framework that integrates the physical, cognitive and social dimensions in order to present a unified view of consciousness, society and life and also to develop a coherent and systemic approach to addressing the world's most pressing problems.
Assuming no knowledge of the subject, Capra opens the book with an all too brief introduction to complex adaptive systems, contrasting it favorably with the reductionist trend which remains dominant within the scientific community. The first part of the book looks at the origins of life, mind and consciousness and the nature of social reality, showing both that the network (and hence connectedness) are the central structure of life. He also shows that life, consciousness and society are emergent properties, in other words they are, in some senses, by-products of simpler processes embedded in the chemical and biological networks that are the building blocks of life.
In the first part he constructs a new theoretical framework by looking at the nature of life, the nature of consciousness and the nature of social reality. He deals extensively with networking that has become an important social phenomenon and a critical source of power in the world.
I think it is a stimulating book, which presents views and information of great interest, trying to address the reality of systemic manner, but on social issues is not consistently achieved, and returns to linear approaches.
However, it shows the enormous influence of public opinion and how technology is solving problems that triggered it. Throughout the book proposes that society should have a non-linear systems thinking. To do so, it explores the social implications of the latest scientific principles, reminding us that theoretical research in the history of thought was based on an online, however, from two decades ago, the revolution is beginning to implement the theory of complex mathematical processes. Capra posits that if we want to sustain life in the future, the laws that underlie our social institutions should be consistent with the organization that nature has developed to maintain its harmony.
Having introduced us to the main philosophical and scientific ideas which underpin his thinking, Capra then examines a number of topics in more detail, starting with leadership and organization. While it is interesting to see complexity theory applied to organizations, this section of the book read more like a trendy management manual than anything else. Given the fact that Capra spends a fair chunk of his time giving seminars and talks to senior managers and executives at major corporations, this should be no surprise. The message that he delivers may be uncomfortable to them, but it's not one that they don't want to hear. When he talks to them of employee empowerment he's certainly not talking about employee appropriation.
for long or make much of a difference because more radical, systemic changes are needed at a global level. It is also hopeful and constructive book, which gives information about innovations and developments that are helping humanity find its way through a crisis. It offers an understanding that is of practical use. It is beautifully written, full of clarity and quotable insights, best read slowly and relished for its quality. I end up feeling wiser, encouraged, inspired, clearer about what is likely to emerge, what has to be done and my part in it.
The Hidden Connections transcends intellectual barriers, overflows with groundbreaking ideas, and combines scholarly science with spirituality. It is a work of rare genius, true insight and great humanity.
That is precisely Capra's breakthrough in The Hidden Connections. He integrates the new biology with an even newer "science of sustainability," rooted in that biology. He shows how our cognitive and social functions are embedded in our biological reality and how we can use many of the same tools or perspectives to understand both.
Just as living systems generate their own structures regulated by a variety of physical laws, social systems generate structures based on common intentions and regulated by meaning. Socially generated structures might be material, cities for example, or they might be cultural or intellectual structures such as bodies of law. But for any socially generated structure to be sustainable, it must be based on the same operative principles that make biological systems sustainable—networking, diversification, nutrient recycling, and homeostasis (exact wording mine).
Throughout he draws on certain principles which are as applicable to the living cells of the smallest organisms as to business corporations and political structures. This indeed is concilience on the grandest scale. At root are ideas about self-generating networks among elements in a system, non-linear evolution, often producing the unexpected, and emergence of new forms of order out of apparent instability.
Part 1 Life, Mind and Society presents his study of nature and life; mind and consciousness and social reality – his new understanding has emerged from complexity theory, integrating studies of the external world, the social world of human relationships and the inner world of values and meaning. Applying knowledge of living networks in life to the social domain forms the basis for the next part. Part 2 The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century, contains four chapters which describe his understanding of Life and Leadership in Organizations (4), the Networks of Global Capitalism (5), Biotechnology at a Turning Point (6), Changing the Game (7) followed by an epilogue, Making Sense.
The Santiago Theory of Cognition formed a n essential part of the author's thought. The central insight of the Santiago Theory is the identification of cognition, the process of knowing, with the process of life. Cognition, according to Maturana and Varela, is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cognition is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of a living organism—plant, animal or human—with its environment are cognitive interactions. Thus life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind—or, more accurately, mental activity—is immanent in matter at all levels of life.
Capra addresses all types of topics from the origin of life, mind and consciousness, social reality, globalization, the problems of biotechnology, to point to a future in which technologies can solve seemingly intractable problems. Objectives are a bit ambitious, since it addresses the problem from a systems approach, which repeatedly contradicted From all this Capra develops the idea that "the interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions, and the process of living itself is a process of cognition." Here he uses cognition in the sense of ability to react to perturbations in the environment. Thus "mind and matter no longer appear to belong to two separate categories but can be seen as representing two complementary aspects of the phenomenon of life…At all levels of life, beginning with the simplest cell, mind and matter, process and structure, are inseparably connected". He goes on to show that throughout the history of life, where he quotes: Let us now return to the question "What is life?" and ask: How does a bacterial cell work? What are its defining characteristics? When we look at a cell under an electron microscope, we notice that its metabolic processes involve special macromolecules—very large molecules consisting of long chains of hundreds of atoms. Two kinds of these macromolecules are found in all cells: proteins and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). In the bacterial cell, there are essentially two types of proteins—enzymes, which act as catalysts of various metabolic processes, and structural proteins, which are part of the cell structure. In higher organisms, there are also many other types of proteins with specialized functions, such as the antibodies of the immune system or the hormones. Since most metabolic processes are catalyzed by enzymes and enzymes are specified by genes, the cellular processes are genetically controlled, which gives them great stability. The RNA molecules serve as messengers, delivering coded information for the synthesis of enzymes from the DNA, thus establishing the critical link between the cell's genetic and metabolic features. the planetary web has expanded through mutation, exchange of genes and symbiosis, producing forms of life of ever increasing complexity and diversity. Here are elements of Gaia theory.
All steps in cosmic evolution, as Capra clearly explains, result from simple entities linking to create more complex ones. The emergence of each new entity is the emergence of a physical or organizational form. With the new emergent system new properties or "qualia" also emerge that are not included in, nor predictable from, the component parts of the new system. Capra uses "sweetness" as a simple example. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen combine to create sugar. The emerging new physical entity has the emerging new unpredicted property or "qualia" of sweetness.
Similarly as the networking of genes produces DNA, a new "qualia" emerges that is more than just the connections of genes. It is this wholeness of this DNA network that determines the kinds of people we can become. As Capra masterfully points out, replacing one or more genes here or there in the complex DNA chain may, or may not, change that emergent
"qualia" of the person. In like manner, the "qualia" of mind, thinking or consciousness, emerges with the emergence of the neural networks of the brain.
Author having a special view towards prospective on the life, he is considering 3 prospective: The synthesis is based on the distinction between two perspectives on (the nature of living systems, which I have called the "pattern perspective" and the "structure perspective,") and on their integration by means of a third perspective, the "process perspective." More specifically, I have defined the pattern of organization of a living system as the configuration of relationships among the system's components that determines the system's essential characteristics, the structure of the system as the material embodiment of its pattern of organization, and the life process as the continual process of this embodiment. But he is trying later to explain his view towards meaning- the fourth prospective.
At this point there is only space left to give you some of the insights I most valued. Chapter 4, Life and Leadership in Organizations: Complexity, uncertainty and turbulence are the foremost characteristics of present-day society. The roots of the failures to bring about change in this complex society lie in the dual nature of organizations, on the one hand, designed for specific purposes and on the other, communities of people interacting and building relationships to help each other and make their activities meaningful. Part of the reason for failure, is not understanding that resistance reflects the need for a living system to be involved in change. Hence the leader needs to focus not on delivering change but how to involve people in its creation. It is so easy to forget this in the haste and urgency of life in organizations. The inherent change process of human organizations, as living systems, mirrors life, not the machine. They change and adapt in similar ways to life, through undergoing continual structural changes while preserving web-like patterns. Most of us are already well aware of the need to relax into uncertainty and confusion. It is a world in which the flexibility, creativity and learning capability that come with the organization's aliveness are most needed. "understanding of human organizations as living systems, is one of the fundamental challenges of our time". “Communities of practice” play an important part in self-generating, living networks. These share common purpose and meaning and have tacit rules of conduct. Here are some relevant extracts from which I gained the clearest understanding of “communities of practice”.
The second half of The Hidden Connections is devoted to applying Capra's new perspectives to a variety of pressing contemporary issues from globalization to biotechnology. He also discusses the concepts of ecoliteracy and ecodesign and puts forth a number of concrete proposals for "changing the game." So The Hidden Connections indeed does connect—theoretical constructs with practical proposals.
The second part explores the management of human organizations, i.e. why and how these are living systems; economic globalization; a systemic analysis of the ethical and scientific problems of biotechnology, with reference to the human genome project, and; the major problems facing the world today.
So much for the biology. Its application to human society is inevitably incomplete and somewhat awkward: but networking, non linear change, complexity and emergence of specific cultural identities are evident wherever we look. The same can be said to some degree about organizations and their management. But here the all too human search for top-down design can militate against natural forces. Managers like algorithms for success even if they do not exist. For many people machines are a better model than living organisms. No wonder therefore that so many modern organizations, including capitalism itself, is under strain.
Capra in this book expands some of his science/social analysis to link new concepts arising from brain research, genetics, neurobiology, and pioneering to the understanding of the cosmos and the natural laws society must obey if humanity is to continue to exist. He explains his idea through his quote: My extension of the systems approach to the social domain explicitly includes the material world. This is unusual, because traditionally social scientists have not been very interested in the world of matter. Our academic disciplines have been organized in such a way that the natural sciences deal with material structures while the social sciences deal with social structures, which are understood to be, essentially, rules of behavior. In the future, this strict division will no longer be possible, because the key challenge of this new century—for social scientists, natural scientists and everyone else—will be to build ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a way that their technologies and social institutions—their material and social structures—do not interfere with nature's inherent ability to sustain life. The design principles of our future social institutions must be consistent with the principles of organization that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life. A unified conceptual framework for the understanding of material and social structures will be essential for this task. The purpose of this book is to provide a first sketch of such a framework as I think.
“The aliveness of an organization – its flexibility, creative potential and learning capability – resides in its informal communities of practice. These are informal networks – alliances and friendships, informal channels of communication … and other tangled webs of relationships – that continually grow, change and adapt to new situations. We are dealing with the crucial difference between a living system and a machine. A machine can be controlled; a living system.... can only be disturbed. … They can be influenced by giving them impulses rather than instructions. Living systems always choose what to notice and how to respond. The most effective way to enhance an organization's learning potential is to strengthen its communities of practice.” (pp 95 to 101)
Leadership is crucially important in this process. “Being a leader means creating a vision; it means going where nobody has gone before. It also means enabling the community as a whole to create something new.” (p106)
In this situation, we need a clear understanding of the dual nature of change and leadership. There are two ways of creating the future. On the one hand, there are designed structures, which are first created in our imagination; on the other, there are emergent structures. The leader requires the right balance of design and emergence. He is wondering in a marvelous quote about organizations manager and life(p111): the more managers know about the detailed processes involved in self-generating social networks, the more effective they will be in working with the organization's communities of practice. Let us see, then, what kinds of lessons for management can be derived from the systemic understanding of life A living network responds to disturbances with structural changes, and it chooses both which disturbances to notice and how to respond. What people notice depends on who they are as individuals, an on the cultural characteristics of their communities of practice. A message will get through to them not only because of its volume or frequency, but because it is meaningful to them. Mechanistically oriented managers tend to hold on to the belief that they can control the organization if they understand how all its parts fit together. Even the daily experience that people's behavior contradicts their expectations does not make them doubt their basic assumption. On the contrary, it compels them to investigate the mechanisms of management in greater detail in order to be able to control them. We are dealing here with a crucial difference between a living system and a machine. A machine can be controlled; a living system, according to the systemic understanding of life, can only be disturbed. In other words, organizations cannot be controlled through direct interventions, but they can be influenced by giving impulses rather than instructions. To change the conventional style of management requires a shift of perception that is anything but easy, but it also brings great re- wards. Working with the processes inherent in living systems means that we do not need to spend a lot of energy to move an organization. There is no need to push, pull, or bully it to make it change. Force or energy are not the issue; the issue is meaning. Meaningful disturbances will get the organization's attention and will trigger structural changes.
In the second part Capra as well analyses the many shortcomings of global capitalism, using biotechnology, in particular the development of genetically modified organisms, as an example. He argues that globalization in its present form is the result of the computer revolution and the introduction of information technology into almost all aspects of human affairs. Such technology is machine philosophy and technology in their most extreme aspects. It goes with increasing exploitation of the earth's resources and corresponding damage to the environment, and can be seen most clearly in the shuttling back and forth of money world wide at unimaginable speeds. It is out of control of national governments, themselves with declining power, and even of most corporations and financial institutions. The result is not the sort of evolution associated with living organisms, but rather social alienation, increasing division between rich and poor, and cumulative damage to human values and cultural diversity.
Biotechnology at a Turning Point: gives an account of the failures of the green revolution and agribusiness and a cautionary lessons for us in exploiting biotechnology and genetic engineering in medicines and in agriculture. Once a systems view of life is embraced by scientists, there will be hope for the future.
Capra points out that, in an economy where "information processing innovation and knowledge creation are the main sources of productivity" (p.125), these self-educated workers.
Capra distinguishes between two kinds of worker:
the masses of workers who move in and out of jobs - replaced at any moment by machines or by labor in another part of the world. They are dependent on the fluctuations in the global financial networks, They are expendable - they have no access to information or knowledge beyond that required to carry out orders and
self educators - people who can access higher levels of education through their capacity to process information and to create knowledge.
And talking about the two kinds of leadership, Finding the right balance between design and emergence seems to require the blending of two different kinds of leadership. The traditional idea of a leader is that of a person who is able to hold a vision, to articulate it clearly and to communicate it with passion and charisma. It is also a person whose actions embody certain values that serve as a standard for others to strive for. The ability to hold a clear vision of an ideal form, or state of affairs, is something that traditional leaders have in common with designers. The other kind of leadership consists in facilitating the emergence of novelty. This means creating conditions rather than giving directions, and using the power of authority to empower others. Both kinds of leadership have to do with creativity. Being a leader means creating a vision; it means going where nobody has gone before. It also means enabling the community as a whole to create something new. Facilitating emergence means facilitating creativity. Holding a vision is central to the success of any organization, because all human beings need to feel that their actions are meaningful and geared toward specific goals. At all levels of the organization, people need to have a sense of where they are going. A vision is a mental image of what we want to achieve, but visions are much more complex than concrete goals and tend to defy expression in ordinary, rational terms. Goals can be measured, while vision is qualitative and much more intangible.
He gave an importance to the type of leadership that the experience of the critical instability that precedes the emergence of novelty may involve uncertainty, fear, confusion, or self-doubt. Experienced leaders recognize these emotions as integral parts of the whole dynamic and create a climate of trust and mutual support. In today’s turbulent global economy this is especially important, because people are often in fear of losing their jobs as a consequence of corporate mergers or other radical structural changes. This fear generates a strong resistance to change, hence building trust is essential.
The Networks of Global Capitalism: New technology, through the interaction between computers and financial markets, facilitated the rise of global capitalism leading to a global casino, huge instability and financial markets essentially out of control. The underlying value is that money-making, focus on profit and shareholder value, should always be valued higher than human needs and rights, democracy and the environment. This has produced a mania of mergers that fail to bring advantages in greater efficiency or profits and have dramatic effects on people and economic hardship. The new economy has transferred power from governments to large corporations, financial markets and a growing criminal economy. It has enriched a small elite and overall its social and economic effects have been disastrous, dismantling social welfare, creating rising inequality and poverty, huge threats to social stability, new diseases and growing threats to the he environment. If consumption in the third world reached American levels the annual damage to the environment would be 220 times present levels. Essentially, he believes the World Bank, World Trade Organization and IMF instead of producing a new order that would benefit all nations, serve this process of globalization and will need to be replaced. This form of globalization is socially and ecologically unsustainable.
Capra applies to analyzing problems are powerful in exposing the structures and activities of global capitalism, but at the end of the day there is a reluctance to address the nature of capitalism itself. Capra wants to reform capitalism not destroy it - with that proviso in mind this is still a book worth reading and thinking about. He that rejection of global capitalism and its values may have already begun. These values are linked to his concept of manliness. It describes how this is process is emerging, as one would expect in a living system, through networks, using new technology, creating new political power. The Alternatives Task Force and its report “Alternatives to Globalization” offers proposals for shifting.
government, global and national, from serving corporations to government serving people and communities. He describes about all kinds of innovations that many of us may not be fully unaware of and have the potential to transform the situation — changes in industrial production, transportation, food production and distribution, eco-design, localization, car design, eco-literacy, subsidies and taxation are all involved. Fortunately eco-design is good business. He describes the principles of ecology. Ecological principles are an essential component of the core values that form the basis for reshaping globalization. This reshaping will require changes in values, political will and operational rules.
Most people in the world have an intuitive understanding of the destructiveness of globalization and realize we are probably at a turning point. Through the glorification of material consumption and in other ways, America especially, wields tremendous power to maintain optimal conditions for the expansion of production. But instability, disturbances and breakdowns, which we are now facing, will lead to breakthroughs.
His analysis of the networks of global capitalism is a little more certain. He describes the rise of the networked economy, the automated trading of currency and stocks, the distributed nature of the economic grid. Quite rightly he describes a system that isn't controlled by any individual person, company, government or organization. But while it's out of control - an automaton as he puts it - it is also owned and serviced by a corporations and governments. To say that it's a monster that is out of control doesn't mean very much if you don't ask who profits from it's existence.
This book explains the situation with clarity, gives a deeper understanding of globalization, the process that has created it, how it will be reshaped and how we can help. It will give hope, a vital ingredient, and momentum to the radical changes that are most likely to emerge.
In looking at globalization the book returns once more to what he considers a key question, and that is the question of values. He views globalization, and the ills it produces, as being a primary consequence of a 'money is the measure of all things' mentality. Changing this value system becomes, therefore, the focus of attention. The examples he gives of communities that are engaging in ecologically conscious production are technologically inspiring, but they do not change the fundamental facts of class, economics and power.
"So what can we hope for the future of humanity?" asks Fritjof on the last two page, 233-
4, before quoting Vaclav Havel again: "The kind of hope that I often think about ... I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don't: it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation ...(Hope) is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but certainly that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
But this seems inevitably the weaker part of the book. It has long been obvious that the kind of society which has developed with industrialization is unsustainable in its present form, and cannot be extended as it is to the rest of the world. An eloquent statement on this point was made in the Amsterdam Declaration published after a conference of over a thousand scientists from the great global research programms in July last year. In short we know most of the problems, and we probably know most of the answers, including the application of different technologies and the creation of new and more appropriate international institutions. The difficulty is how to get from here to there. Radical change may already be on its way, but it remains mostly on the fringes. We still measure things wrongly, and here economists have a big responsibility. Unfortunately we may need a catastrophe or two to bring about the fundamental changes that are required.
Finally, in the last section of analysis he looks at bio-technology. For me this was by far the strongest section of the whole book. Capra tackles what he terms the 'central dogma' of which genetic engineering is based, that is the idea that individual genes directly determine biological traits and behaviors. In a sense genetic engineering is applied biological determinism. Capra tackles the issue head on, detailing the complex inter-relationships between genes, organism and the environment at large. Quoting extensively from those molecular biologists who are questioning this dogma, he shows not only that biological determinism, is simplistic and not supported by the scientific evidence, he also shows that bio-engineering and genetic modification are deeply suspect and dangerous technologies.
My only criticism of Capra's present work is that some of his theories are not developed enough. Even a reader who is well versed in contemporary systems theory and it's ramifications for sustainable design and development may want fuller explanations of some of his concepts. Following some of his arguments, lucidly presented though they are, will be difficult for those who are new to the field.
In a sense then, The Hidden Connections is truly seminal. It is the germ rather than the fully developed organism. This underdeveloped effect has its merits however. The reader is given an valuable infusion of ideas that are systematically, if somewhat sketchily tied together and with which he or she has the freedom to run in any number of directions. And Capra himself has his next work, should he choose to pursue it, cut out for him.
In spite of the minimalist nature of its discussion, however, Capra's book is such a marvelous synthesis, so far in advance of any work along similar lines, that it will set the standard for the development of sustainable thought for some time to come.
The author does a good job of pointing out the unified systems that integrate the biological, cognitive and social aspects of life and of explaining how a new vision of reality is unfolding, together with the social implications of this transformation.
From the outset I was utterly hooked, it was a completely compelling read. Fritjof Capra moves from and connects deep cellular biology and the origins of cellular life through philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, globalization, environmentalism, social theory and anthropology with both grace and beauty finishing with light, hope and the framework of a new way of thinking. Reading this book was a truly enlightening experience, it is highly accessible to all, and must surely rate as essential for all readers in the 21st century. The Hidden Connection inspires and educates, provokes thought and challenges the way we interact with the world and others, it is a truly awe-inspiring read that has the potential to change the way in which we live and view our planet.
After writing this book Capra considered arguably the leading expert in systems thinking in the world, he has integrated biological, cognitive, social, and metaphysical into a science of sustainability particularly as it applies to life in organizations, It is an exciting journey by way of biology, sociology, market economics and ecology, and arrives at conclusions which call for radical change in human society.
Hidden Connections is a great read. The book contains explanatory notes, a bibliography and an index.
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