{"id":29,"date":"2012-07-23T22:45:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T22:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juice3d.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:00:19","slug":"genius-of-the-beast","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/howardbloom.net\/?page_id=29","title":{"rendered":"Genius of the Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/td>\u201cAn extraordinary book, exhilaratingly-written and masterfully-researched.
I couldn\u2019t put it down.\u201d\u2014JAMES BURKE, author and director of Connections<\/em> Click here to order The Genius of the Beast from Amazon<\/a> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Expert Opinions on The Genius of the Beast

\u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinary book, exhilaratingly-written and masterfully-researched. I couldn\u2019t put it down.\u201d
James Burke, creator and host of seven BBC TV series, including Connections.

\u201cBrilliant and powerful.\u201d
Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on the Moon, pilot of Apollo 14\u2019s Lunar Module, and founder of The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

\u201cImpressive and stimulating. A tremendously enjoyable book.\u201d
James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic, Chairman of the Board of the New America Foundation, five-time finalist for the American Book Award, former White House speechwriter, author of Blind Into Baghdad and Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China.

\u201cHoward Bloom\u2019s newest book nails it once and for all. Hard to believe a book could clarify and illuminate everything swirling through and around our beleaguered selves, but this one does it!\u201d
Richard Foreman, MacArthur Genius award-winner, founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater and the man the New York Times calls the \u201cgray wizard of experimental theater.\u201d

\u201cRead with delight this terrific book in which Bloom re-writes the history of the West and shows us what capitalism is really all about\u2013or what at its best it demands of us and how it rewards our innermost natures. Bloom is a thinker of the order of Herbert Spencer or Henri Bergson\u2013he tries to see the whole picture from the origin of the universe through the origin of life to the origins of humanity and the continuity of the creativity of the cosmos in our personal and social behavior. His insights along the way are mind-churning: his portrayal of Plato\u2019s real genius as a marketer is brilliant. The bacteria who poisoned their environment and thus moved evolution upward\u2026what a metaphor. Columbus\u2019 greatest skill was marketing not navigation, the role of tea rituals, and the tale of soap, all are wonderful. I\u2019ve been writing about Max Weber and \u2018the spirit of capitalism\u2019 and it makes me even more aware of the brilliance of Bloom\u2019s argument about what is in the beast and how it can be tapped: capitalism does not just emerge from the Protestant ethic but from the nature of the human animal and its cosmic inheritance. Let\u2019s hope this side of the beast can win out over its parochial and narrow other self that longs for the safety of the tribe. But about the West at its best, he\u2019s right: Capitalism = Service. An amazing and brilliant book.\u201d
Robin Fox, founder of the Anthropology Department at Rutgers University, former director of research for the H. F. Guggenheim Foundation, co-author of The Imperial Animal and author of Kinship and Marriage.

\u201cPure poetry, divinely begotten. It\u2019s a struggle of visions wine and wafer to become the real world\u2019s flesh and blood. I am convinced that Howard Bloom is the reincarnation of Plato. This beast is absolutely captivating; a godsend.\u201d
Mark Lamonica, author of Rio L. A and Junk yard dogs and William Shakespeare.

\u201cIt will grab you by the throat and shake your fundamental perceptions of life.\u201d
Robert D. Steel, former CIA clandestine case officer for extremist targets, creator Marine Corps Intelligence Center, CEO of OSS.Net, Inc., author of On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, #1 non-fiction reviewer at Amazon.com.

\u201cCapitalism de- and reconstructed\u2013capitalism with a heart\u2013and brain: Howard Bloom\u2019s new book marshals his vast knowledge of history, deep cultural experience and broad scientific understanding to argue for a new way. Ever since I sent away for a marketing book in the eighties whose major advice was how much money you could make marketing marketing books, I was skeptical. But marketing genius Howard Bloom may have written the greatest marketing book ever\u2013one that puts capitalism in its cosmic context.\u201d
Dorion Sagan, author of Acquiring Genomes: A Theory Of The Origin Of Species (with Lynn Margulis) and Notes from the Holocene: A Brief History of the Future.

\u201cI imagine Howard Bloom\u2019s eyes laughing as he takes a sledgehammer to smash yet another giant icon: this time it\u2019s the sacred cow of capitalist macroeconomic theory. But when the dust clears \u2014 and he\u2019s colorfully reconstructed the history of Western Civilization through the eyes of his latest mega-idea, it turns out capitalism is a good thing after all. We were all just wrong about why! Howard remains one of my favorite sources of new memes. Don\u2019t miss this one.\u201d
Richard Brodie, author, Virus of the Mind: the New Science of the Meme and original author of Microsoft Word

\u201cBloom is a brilliant synthesizer who connects the dots so the rest of us can see.\u201d
Paul Herr, author of Primal Management and Inventor of The Horsepower SurveyTM

\u201cAt last a consistent free-flowing unmutilated vision for those who want to see the connection between physics, emotions, business and society. Some Bloomian terms and concepts (like reperception, messianic capitalism, cycles of boom and crash, and the universe feeling out her possibilities) have already invaded my everyday speech. This is exactly what we need: a science book meant for action and an action manual rooted in science.\u201d
Pascal Jouxtel, partner, Eurogroup Institute, Paris, author of Comment les systmes pondent.

\u201cHoward Bloom has created a masterpiece! This book is the \u2018aha moment\u2019 that everyone needs and is deeply yearning for.
\u201dBarbara Annis, CEO, Barbara Annis & Associates, author of Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business and Same Words Different Language: How Men and Women Misunderstand each other at Work and What to do About it.

\u201cHoward Bloom\u2019s books are a gift to civilization. The Genius of the Beast is the best business history I\u2019ve read, and I\u2019ve read many. It does resonate to my frequency! It does.\u201d
Alex Lightman, author of Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet, CTO, FutureMax Group, CTO, Intergovernment Renewable Energy Organization. 

\u201cIf the world pays attention to Howard Bloom, the future of capitalism and the future of the world will change.\u201d
Bob Krone, Provost, Kepler Space University

\u201cA delightful and insightful rollercoaster ride into the future of capitalism, ripe with Howard Bloom\u2019s trademark gusto for kaleidoscopic adventure on the frontiers of history, biology, physics, marketing, economics, and management.\u201d
Nova Spivak, CEO and Founder of Twine.com, the world\u2019s leading pioneer of semantic webs.

\u201cBloom makes a culture rock and roll as he blows away past myths, present cul-de-sacs, and future blind alleys. If the safest place in any crisis is always the hard truth, Bloom doesn\u2019t hesitate to tell us what\u2019s real, what works, and how we can escape the mess we are in. Pay heed!\u201d
Don Edward Beck, Ph. D. Chairman, Global Centers for Human Emergence, co-author Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change.

\u201cThere is a resonating message in The Genius of the Beast. The human being is front and center in history. Front and center in the past, present, and future. That human being is our client. The Genius of the Beast explains the centrality of understanding our client\u2019s emotions. It explains the paramount importance of delivering outcomes that satisfy those emotions, and of delivering those outcomes in an ethical manner. This message is fundamental in a time when there\u2019s a fracture in the investment business as we continue the shift towards retirement management. The old normal does not fit the current situation anymore. There are too many unsolved problems. There are too many unsolvable problems. The investment profession needs a new language. Traditional finance and economics described the client in terms of rational utility. That language is no longer good enough. We need new words that help us understand our clients\u2019 emotional needs. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve put The Genius of the Beast in our advanced curriculum for Retirement Management Analysts and have cited it in our own book, RIIA\u2019s Advisory Process: How To Benefit From The View Across The Silos.’\u201d
Francois Gadenne, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director, The Retirement Income Industry Association. Co-author of How To Benefit From \u201cThe View Across The Silos.\u201d

\u201cHoward Bloom personifies America\u2019s entrepreneurial genius; following him will lead us to a new world of wealth creation.\u201d
Rich Kirby, President, Kepler Space University 

\u201cIn The Genius of the Beast, Howard Bloom achieves what he has set out to do in articulating a thoroughly secular call to what amounts to a spiritual mission. By tracing the capitalist impulse to innovate all the way back to its humble origins in bacteria and ants, Bloom conveys a powerful moral and evolutionary imperative for us to reinvent ourselves\u201d and reinvigorate this system\u201d for the sake of our collective future.\u201d
Andrew Cohen, founder EnlightenNext

\u201cI\u2019m a Christian and Bloom is an atheist. But he brilliantly nails the divine nature that drives us toward creation and rest. The Genius of the Beast is a secular epiphany.\u201d Brace E. Barber, President\/CEO Decipherst, Inc. and author of No Excuse Leadership.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

what is<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n


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click photo for a trip through art, evolution, and history
scroll down for<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GLOBAL BRAIN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Evolution of Mass Mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Big Bang To the 21st<\/sup> Century<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Howard Bloom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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click here to order global brain from amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoward Bloom may just be the new Stephen Hawking<\/strong>, only he\u2019s not interested in science alone; he\u2019s interested in the soul.\u201d Aaron Hicklin\u2013Gear<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA soaring song of songs<\/strong>\u00a0about the amorous origins of the world, and its almost medieval urge to copulate.\u201d Kevin Kelly, Editor-at-Large,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have met God, and he lives in Brooklyn. \u2026Howard Bloom is next in a lineage of seminal thinkers that includes Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Freud, and Buckminster Fuller<\/strong>\u2026he is going to change the way we see ourselves and everything around us.\u201d Richard Metzger, creative director, The Disinformation Company, host of Channel4 TV Britain\u2019s Disinfo Nation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor those who worry that our ingenuity has upset nature\u2019s equilibrium, Bloom has a message that is both reassuring and sobering. \u2018We are nature incarnate,\u2019 he writes. \u2018We are tools of her probings and if, indeed, we suffer and we fail, from our lessons she will learn which way in the future not to turn.’\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

courtesy of<\/a> NSSDC Photo Gallery<\/a>
click on photo for a grand tour of the cosmos<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard Bloom\u2019s first book, The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into The Forces of History, <\/em>was a shock to those who believe that the greed of genes turns us into selfish loners. But Bloom\u2019s second volume, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, <\/em>will come as an even bigger surprise. Says Elizabeth Loftus, past president of the American Psychological Society: \u201cHoward Bloom\u2019s Global Brain<\/em> 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\u2013the Big Bang. Global Brain<\/em> is the first book to present strong evidence that evolutionary, biological, perceptual, and emotional mechanisms have made us parts of a social learning machine\u2013a 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Brain <\/em>says that a world-wide web has been with us since the first moments of life, and that global connectivity isn\u2019t a product of our technology, it\u2019s built into our biology. It\u2019s in our cells, our bodies, and our brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cA 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.\u201d Douglas Rushkoff-author of Media Virus<\/em>, Coercion<\/em>, and Ecstasy Club<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Brain<\/em> tells scientific tales so vivid and so little-known they scintillate. The book zooms in on the birth of the first communal intelligence in colonies of cyanobacteria 3.5 billion years ago. A single bacterial society in those days of a spanking-new earth held trillions of members, all hyperlinked by a chemical communication code\u2026and all working together to literally reengineer their genes. Each colony upped the level of microbial ingenuity by broadcasting data-laden macromolecules over the span of continents and seas. Using this global information-web, bacteria pioneered the first planet-straddling research and development system eons before the emergence of brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This may sound like far-fetched fantasy, but it\u2019s not. Says National Medal of Science-winning biologist Lynn Margulis, Global Brain<\/em> is \u201ca stunning commitment to scientific evidence.\u201d The Washington Post\u2019s<\/em> Michael Shermer adds that, Global Brain<\/em> is \u201cmeticulously researched, and beautifully written.\u201d And Amazon.com science editor Rob Lightner says that, \u201cAuthor Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller\u2019s intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication\u2026The reader is swept up in Bloom\u2019s vision of the power of mass minds and, before long, can\u2019t help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs, and the Internet. [Global Brain<\/em> is] as exciting as the best science fiction and as convincing as the best research paper.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

click here to order global brain from amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how Publisher\u2019s Weekly <\/em>sums Global Brain<\/em> up: \u201cBlooms debut. The Lucifer Principle <\/em>sought the biological basis for human evil. Now Bloom is after even bigger game. While cyber-thinkers claim the Internet is bringing us toward some sort of worldwide mind, Bloom believes we\u2019ve had one all along. Drawing on information theory, debates within evolutionary\u2019 biology, and research psychology (among other disciplines), Bloom understands the development of life on Earth as a series of achievements in collective information processing. He stands up for \u2018group selection\u2019 (a minority view among evolutionists) and traces cooperation among organisms-and competition between groups-throughout the history of evolution. \u2018Creative webs\u2019 of early microorganisms teamed up to go after food sources: modern colonies of E. coli bacteria seem to program themselves for useful, nonrandom mutations. Octopi \u2018teach\u2019 one another to avoid aversive stimuli. Ancient Sparta killed its weakest infants; Athens educated them. Each of these is a social learning system. And each such system relies on several functions. \u2018Conformity enforcers\u2019 keep most group members doing the same things; \u2018diversity generators\u2019 seek out new things; \u2018resource shifters\u2019 help the system alter itself to favor new things that work. In Bloom\u2019s model, bowling leagues, bacteria, bees, Belgium and brains all behave in similar ways. \u2026fascinating, \u2026ambitious, [and] amply footnoted Bloom\u2019s concept of collective information processing may startle skeptical readers with its explanatory\u2019 power.\u201d
continued on next page\u2026along with Stone Age beauties and one of the strangest Cambrian beasts you\u2019ve ever seen\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

howardbloom.net<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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from amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAn extraordinary book, exhilaratingly-written and masterfully-researched.I couldn\u2019t put it down.\u201d\u2014JAMES BURKE, author and director of Connections Click here to order The Genius …<\/p>\n

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