Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution

What John Brockman does here makes a lot of sense. He brings together a whole group of first- rank scientists and enables them to explain major aspects of their thought. These 'popularizations' of scientific work taken together, and dialogued about are however proposed by Brockman to be the basis of a 'Third Culture' a scientifically based higher or true culture. Here we meet the recurrence of the well- known reality in which the person goes and asks various people in the town why X or Y happens to be the way they are. The barber says it is because they do not have a proper haircut, and the tailor says it is because their trousers have not been properly sewn, the mailman says its because their letters were not delivered. Etc Etc. Brockman should understand that there are realms , respectable realms of cultural and human activity which Science has no significant place in. The drama of Shakespeare does not need an Isaac Asimov analysis of the number of its characters or pages to be what it is. The world of Music does not need a scientific explanation of what Music is in order to give pleasure and meaning to many. A truly comprehensive Culture would have Science as a central part of it. But it would not be exclusively scientific. I am personally a great fan of Brockman and the colloqiums he puts together in 'Edge'. But he should too understand that there are worlds outside the world of science, and that those worlds are real and meaningful in ways scientific work does not comprehend.

Yes, and it's called 'The Third Culture'. I am a final year high school student studying evolution and I read 'The Third Culture' expecting a dry and uninteresting outline of science. I was so happy to be proved wrong! I found that 'The Third Culture' was a logical and plausible explanation of integral facets of existence and that it explored science in such a way that it LIVED. Instead of just regurgitating the tried and true aspects of science which are so often printed in school books (or untried and untrue aspects of religion which is so often the resort of people attempting to explain the supposedly unexplainable) it does not shrink from showing that there is conflict in the scientific community and that it is by no means infallible but at least it's trying to resolve some old questions. Not least, it is readable and informative and doesn't resort incomprehensible jargon which was important to me. I'm very glad I read 'The Third Culture' and I think I'm better informed for doing that.

In this fine volume, editor and literary agent John Brockman has managed to assemble a majority of the key scientists who are developing the 'Third Culture' - a new scientific paradigm that provides public feedback loops.The interviews are first-rate, particularly those with Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Paul Davies, Murray Gell-Mann, Roger Penrose, Lynn Margulis, and Stuart Kauffman. Unlike some of Brockman's other interview collections, Brockman is not really intrusive, enabling the scientists to speak for themselves, directly to the interested reader. Just as intriguing are the commentaries within each interview by other scientists featured within the volume, giving an insight into the lively debate that features prominently within the contemporary scientific community. Despite featuring many of the major names and minds, they don't always agree, and the interplay is exhilirating. Brockman's opening chapter on the 'Third Culture' concept steps beyond C.P. Snow's oft-quoted warnings to embrace sovereignty, freedom, and conscience.'The Third Culture' is an excellent introductory volume to give to a non-scientist that conveys the power and longterm social impact of evolutionary flows, systemic design, spiral thinking, and holistic structures. The interviews accurately convey how the new paradigms unleashed by Memetics, Complexity, Chaos Theory, Metaphysics, Neuro-biology, Cosmology, Biological Systems, Darwinian Evolution, Artificial Intelligence et. al will affect the layperson. Knowledge of this will be crucial for survival in the postmodern environment: why live in an absolutist moralistic Newtonian universe when the 'Third Culture' is far more liberating and inviting?The book does fail to consider certain concepts beyond those propagated by the Santa Fe Institute, such as the Pribram/Bohm/Talbot 'Holographic Mind' model, Terence McKenna's Timewave and 2012 Singularity Point, or Rupert Sheldrake's controversial 'Morphic Resonance' models. But if this is kept in mind, the book is invaluable, and for the beginner, makes science accessible.

Knowledge is power. But as Brockman successfully argues, the significance of the new knowledge born by scientific revolution will never be fully realized without communication. Enter the Third Culture. These individuals have successfully bridged the gap between ignorance and enlightenment by revealing the magic and power of science to the world. In his book, Brockman has brought together the ideas of those who, in his opinion, are best representative of the Third Culture. Lynn Margulis' ideas on symbiosis and evolutionary change give a new twist to Darwinism; the idea of exaptation as explained by Stephen Jay Gould reveals the inherent randomness of natural selection; Alan Guth's comments on the Big Bang and the fate of the universe will force anyone to become a kid again and wonder. The reader will be exposed to a vast range of scientific thought in a way which is easily understood and enjoyable. In addition to getting exposed to ideas which are dominating science today, the reader also gets a flavor for the lives of those who are truly passionate and dedicated to their work. Scholar or layman, the reader will enjoy this anthology of thought and walk away knowing that science is really as amazing as it's cracked up to be.

This is a great book, yet because it so clearly shows the views of the best in science, it inadvertently demonstrates the limitations of scientific thought. The best in science is not good enough! As I trained scientist myself and after reading this book, I conclude that the best in science are trying too hard to work within the limitations of their adopted methodology--the scientific mode of inquiry. Implicit within that mode is an imprisonment of thought patterns that will allow only for very slow incremental knowledge about the real important things of life. Science is bent on being absolutely sure about unimportant things (especially inorganic things) because scientists cannot bear to be just probable about anything, including important things such as human affairs. This book clearly shows that we need to read the views of the best scientific minds, but we also need to read books by others, such as Michael Talbot's "Holographic Universe." There are other thinkers, (unfortunately not considered brilliant because we are so enamored with things scientific), who are not entrapped into being so clever within a methodology such as scientific inquiry, that was once dominant, but is now losing its relevance in providing answers to our deeper questions. In reading "Complexity" by M. Mitchell Waldrop and this book, I was struck how hard even the more enlightened scientists from the Sante Fe Institute were trying to derive insights into self-organizing systems and other "obvious" issues. (Imagine using a Newtonian derived device--the computer, like its linear "if ..and..then" approach-- to model quantum phenomena such as awareness and consciousness which need approaches such as self-annealing knowledge!) With a simple switch in their approach, the scientists do not have to try so hard and be so clever. The problem is the METHOD of inquiry. We need paradigm shifts in our APPROACH to knowledge discovery, not just in knowledge. Complexity is actually an apology by scientists for having lead the world astray in their previous promulgations about a simple-minded, linear universe. The world had to be seen as simple because the method of inquiry was simple-minded. Within the above perspective, I highly recommend purchase of the book. It may cause the lay people to understand that they may have to contribute to the development of the new knowledge. The best scientific minds are running out of steam, as this book shows, by making their views so accessible to the wider audience. C. Sherman Severin, Ph.D., President & Editor, Consultants Report International Magazine