Hidden Connections

Book review: Financial Times

The Hidden Connections - Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability, by Fritjof Capra, Doubleday and Harper Collins 2002

Not for the first time, Fritjof Capra makes a broad sweep of human knowledge and experience, ranging from a definition of life (or rather the "defining characteristics of living systems") to global capitalism as we now know it. 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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

In the second part of his book Capra 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.

What then is the answer? Inevitably this is 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 programmes 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.

This book is not easy reading. Sometimes the case is obscured by jargon and unnecessary academic defensiveness. Many of the ideas could have been more simply and economically expressed. But it is a rich resource which should be widely drawn upon. By establishing the connections in its title, which are indeed too often hidden, the author has courageously put together a real tract for our times.