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JUNE - JULY 2011 REVIEWS @ KEVIEWS scientific comprehension. She also and complexity, Chorost says that B O O K S suggests how these alternative many existing technologies for Reviewed by Ruth Parnell perspectives can be applied in the detecting and interpreting brain fields of ecology, agriculture and activity, as well as mechanisms LIFE AS ENERGY healthcare. Dr Pietak gifts us with a (nanowires, optogenetics) for reading by Alexis Mari Pietak way to make a powerful difference in and writing brain activity, could be Floris Books, Edinburgh, UK, 2011 how we live and how we relate with applied to the task. He describes a ISBN 978-086315-797-4 (280pp tpb) ecosystems and the entire planet. communications protocol for sending Available: www.florisbooks.co.uk perceptions and memories from one Ts materialistic scientific WORLD WIDE MIND brain to another, and unveils paradigm rarely considers the life by Michael Chorost examples of new kinds of collective aspect of a living organism because _Free Press, London & NY, 20II communication that would be of its focus on basic parts like genes |SBN 978-1-4391-1914-3 (242pp hc) possible if humans were interlinked and molecules. Fortunately this is Available: wwwSimonandSchuster.com With the Internet—"telempathy’, changing, helped by visionaries such ur next evolutionary step could S¥Nthetic perception and dream as biophysicist/biomedical scientist be the development of a World brainstorming among them. Alexis Pietak, PhD, who regards life Wide Mind, a computer technology A hive mind could emerge from as a unique form of energy. hat may connect us in a collective these interactions, Chorost proposes, The idea of “life as energy" is consciousness. This scenario is and could be used to enhance human-to-human contact and sustain ient: it's the qi of the Chi i ancient: it's the qi of the Chinese and proposed by Michael Chorost, community on many levels. the prana of the Ayurvedic systems of himself a sort of bionic man in that India, but it's also the "vitalism" of he has two cochlear implants—"a 17th-century western science. Dr iving example of the integration of Pietak explains how this holistic- humans and computers”. based notion was subsumed by later Chorost perceives a time when scientific rationalism but has never human minds may work directly with really gone away: it's been embraced the Internet, resulting in our in alternative medicine such as becoming more closely connected homoeopathy and has an interesting — with each other and able to sense fit with quantum physics. each other's presence, moods and Dr Pietak gives us a renewed needs, as well as creating a single appreciation for the awe-inspiring, organism with powerful new the Commg lategration of Kumans and Machines perplexing features of living systems capabilities. An adherent of the and demonstrates how we can utilise "push-pull dynamic’ that drives "imaginative rationality" in their systems to increasing levels of order scientific comprehension. She also suggests how these alternative perspectives can be applied in the fields of ecology, agriculture and healthcare. Dr Pietak gifts us with a way to make a powerful difference in how we live and how we relate with ecosystems and the entire planet. and complexity, Chorost says that many existing technologies for detecting and interpreting brain activity, as well as mechanisms (nanowires, optogenetics) for reading and writing brain activity, could be applied to the task. He describes a communications protocol for sending perceptions and memories from one brain to another, and unveils examples of new kinds of collective communication that would be possible if humans were interlinked with the Internet—"telempathy", synthetic perception and dream brainstorming among them. A “hive mind" could emerge from these interactions, Chorost proposes, and could be used to enhance human-to-human contact and sustain community on many levels. NEXUS ¢ 71 www.nexusmagazine.com