New World New Mind Moving Toward Conscious Evolution

Arguing that changing cultures and biological changes have rendered traditional ways of thinking obsolete, the authors advocate a new set of thoughts and reactions in keeping with contemporary life

Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist and population expert, has teamed with psychologist Ornstein ( The Psychology of Consciousness ) to produce an important and urgent prescription for sanity. They perceive a mismatch between the human nervous system and our complex modern world: unlike early hunter-gatherers who evolved quick reflexes to cope with a limited environment, modern Americans face long-range problems not readily apparent to the five sensesexploding population, proliferation of nuclear warheads, depletion of the ozone layer, a staggering budget deficit, mass slaughter on our highways and by handguns. Whether or not one accepts the biological premise of their argument, their engagingly written, continually provocative synthesis effectively demonstrates how we use crude mental caricatures to manipulate a social and physical environment gone haywire. Although their talk of initiating conscious evolutionary progress in human beings may seem farfetched, their concrete proposals on TV programming, arms control, environmental planning, child rearing and curriculum changes are well worth heeding.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Doubleday. Jan. 1989. c.312p. index. ISBN 0-385-23940-8. $18.95. psych According to Ehrlich and Ornstein, the "new world" of short-term technological and environmental change requires a "new mind" capable of perceiving long-term, slow-motion calamity; if we learn to think probabilistically, we can recognize misjudgment and cognitive bias. The authors therefore recommend a formal effort to train minds to filter in, not filter out, imperceptible changes in global ecology and the large-scale consequences of economic growthmanship. They would also expand media reporting of gradual trends as an antidote to our outmoded view of the world as static. A timely book that should inspire each of us to assess more accurately the not-so-benign implications of the technological mobilization of humanity and the earth. William Abrams, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.