Hubble’s eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) photograph reveals a section of “empty black space” to contain thousands of galaxies billions of light years away. The points of light are individual galaxies each containing billions of suns.
From the Foreword - by Brian Thomas Swimme:
Since the mid 1980s, a number of leading theorists across academic disciplines have been involved in the common endeavor of articulating the outlines of what might be called a planetary civilization. It is in terms of this ongoing creative project that the significance of Louis Herman’s Future Primal can best be appreciated. . . . The primary motivation for this revisioning is the realization that the ecological and social devastation taking place around the planet will only continue until some powerful new ideas take hold in human consciousness.
My own sense is that, in a number of fields, remarkable progress has been achieved. Some of the landmarks would include: in economics, Herman Daly and his articulation of the theoretical foundations for economic sustainability; in technology, Janine Benyus and her recasting of industrial infrastructure as biological mimicry; in agriculture, Wes Jackson and his new paradigm of a perennial polyculture; in physics, Fritjof Capra and his deconstruction of scientism; in human-Earth relations, Susan Griffin and her work leading beyond the oppressions of dualism; in religion, Thomas Berry and his vision of the ultimate sacred community as neither humanity, nor a subgroup of humanity, but the entire Earth Community itself.
I would place the work of Louis Herman in this company of geniuses. Regularly, at these conferences, however satisfied we were with what had been accomplished in revising physics or biology or economics, the glaring omission was politics. This absence of a political philosophy that would support a planetary civilization has been keenly felt for years.
No longer. With Future Primal we have a work that is in deep resonance with the ideas from the other architects of this new Earth era. Drawing from a very wide range of ideas and sources, including contemporary political scientists, the Kalahari Bushmen, and the Axial Greek philosophers, Louis Herman has created a vision of the human being as a microcosm of the entire evolving 13.7 billion year old universe itself. Perhaps the best way to describe this creative synthesis is to call it a work of political cosmology. For with this new vision of politics we can begin to imagine ourselves not just as consumers, not just as political units of a nation-state, but as cosmological beings—cosmological beings whose foundation is that same creativity that brought forth a time-developmental universe, and whose struggles are those same ongoing struggles of life itself to give birth to new forms of Beauty.
I am convinced that Louis Herman's Future Primal provides a cornerstone for this emerging planetary civilization.
— Brian Thomas Swimme, professor of evolutionary cosmology, the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and coauthor with Thomas Berry of The Story of the Universe.
Since the mid 1980s, a number of leading theorists across academic disciplines have been involved in the common endeavor of articulating the outlines of what might be called a planetary civilization. It is in terms of this ongoing creative project that the significance of Louis Herman’s Future Primal can best be appreciated. . . . The primary motivation for this revisioning is the realization that the ecological and social devastation taking place around the planet will only continue until some powerful new ideas take hold in human consciousness.
My own sense is that, in a number of fields, remarkable progress has been achieved. Some of the landmarks would include: in economics, Herman Daly and his articulation of the theoretical foundations for economic sustainability; in technology, Janine Benyus and her recasting of industrial infrastructure as biological mimicry; in agriculture, Wes Jackson and his new paradigm of a perennial polyculture; in physics, Fritjof Capra and his deconstruction of scientism; in human-Earth relations, Susan Griffin and her work leading beyond the oppressions of dualism; in religion, Thomas Berry and his vision of the ultimate sacred community as neither humanity, nor a subgroup of humanity, but the entire Earth Community itself.
I would place the work of Louis Herman in this company of geniuses. Regularly, at these conferences, however satisfied we were with what had been accomplished in revising physics or biology or economics, the glaring omission was politics. This absence of a political philosophy that would support a planetary civilization has been keenly felt for years.
No longer. With Future Primal we have a work that is in deep resonance with the ideas from the other architects of this new Earth era. Drawing from a very wide range of ideas and sources, including contemporary political scientists, the Kalahari Bushmen, and the Axial Greek philosophers, Louis Herman has created a vision of the human being as a microcosm of the entire evolving 13.7 billion year old universe itself. Perhaps the best way to describe this creative synthesis is to call it a work of political cosmology. For with this new vision of politics we can begin to imagine ourselves not just as consumers, not just as political units of a nation-state, but as cosmological beings—cosmological beings whose foundation is that same creativity that brought forth a time-developmental universe, and whose struggles are those same ongoing struggles of life itself to give birth to new forms of Beauty.
I am convinced that Louis Herman's Future Primal provides a cornerstone for this emerging planetary civilization.
— Brian Thomas Swimme, professor of evolutionary cosmology, the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and coauthor with Thomas Berry of The Story of the Universe.