Global Brain

Critics Review

• “This lusty tome generated by Bloom’s voracious reading habit and extraordinary talent for explanation proclaims that groups of individuals—from people to vervet monkeys to bacteria—organize themselves, create novelty, alter their surroundings, and triumph to leave more offspring than loner individuals. A stunning commitment to scientific evidence, this sequel to The Lucifer Principle ought to purge the academic world of ‘selfish genes’ and the neodarwinist dogma of ‘individual selection.’”

  Lynn Margulis, University of Massachusetts, recipient of a 1999 National Medal of Science and author of Symbiotic Planet

• “Beautifully written.”

  Washington Post

• “Bloom’s concept of collective information processing may startle skeptical readers with its explanatory power.”

  Publishers Weekly

• “A soaring song of songs about the amorous origins of the world and its almost medieval urge to copulate.”

  Kevin Kelly, editor-at-large of Wired and author of New Rules for the New Economy

• “A modern-day prophet, Bloom compels us to admit that evolution is a team sport. This is a picture of the universe in which human emotions find their basis in the survival of matter, and the atoms themselves are held together with love. I am awestruck.”

  Douglas Rushkoff, author of Media Virus

• “In a superbly written and totally original argument, Howard Bloom continues his one-man tradition of tackling the taboo subjects. With a marvelously erudite survey of life and society from bacteria to the Internet, he demonstrates that group selection is for real and the group mind was there from the start. What we are entering now is but the latest phase in the evolution of the global brain. This is a must read for professionals and laymen alike.”

  Robin Fox, Rutgers University, coauthor of The Imperial Animal

• “Howard Bloom’s Global Brain is filled with scientific firsts. It is the first book to make a strong, solidly backed, and theoretically original case that we do not live the lonely lives of selfish beings driven by selfish genes, but are parts of a larger whole. It is the first to propose that sociality was implicit in the start of the universe—the big bang. Global Brain is the first book to present strong evidence that evolutionary, biological, perceptual, and emotional mechanisms have made us parts of a social learning machine—a mass mind which includes all species of life, not just humankind. It is the first to take this idea out of the realm of mysticism and into the sphere of hard-nosed, data-derived reality. And it is one of the few books which carry off such grand visions with energy, excitement, and keen insight.”

  Elizabeth Loftus, author of Witness for the Defense

• “[I] am seriously awed, near overwhelmed by the magnitude of what [Bloom] has done. I never expected to see, in any form, from any sector, such an accomplishment. I doubt there is a stronger intellect than Bloom’s on the planet.”

  Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Evolution's End

• “Global Brain is wonderful! I’m amazed at the book’s knowledge and the scope of its reach. The ‘mass mind’ idea is wondrous, smart, and immensely creative.”

  Georgie Anne Geyer, syndicated columnist and author of Guerrilla Prince

• “As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long-standing interest in evolution, I’ll just assimilate Howard Bloom’s accomplishment and my amazement.”

  David Smillie, visiting professor of zoology, Duke University

• “Howard Bloom has a fascinating vision of the interplay of life and a compelling style which I found captivating.”

  Nils Daulaire, president and CEO of Global Health Council

• “Howard Bloom’s work is simply brilliant and there is nothing else like it, anywhere—we’ve looked, as have our colleagues. Global Brain is powerful, provocative, and mind-blowing.”

  Don Edward Beck, PhD, author of Spiral Dynamics

• “Stunning! Howard Bloom has done it again. He is certainly on to something.”

  Peter Corning, director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, and author of The Synergism Hypothesis