Cynthia Stokes Brown was an avid reader and researcher. This collection is a digital representation of her personal library with the books categorized as Cynthia had them on the bookshelves in her home
These are the books she had in her Big History collection
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The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World
Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack
"Most people assume either that Earth was created as-is a few thousand years ago, or else that it's a lonely rock in endless space--although both assumptions are wrong. Meanwhile, global problems like climate destabilization, economic chaos, religious-justified violence, and exhaustion of planetary resources are escalating. These facts are connected. The new universe picture described in this book provides a believable new origin story and cosmic context, which help us to think for the first time on large enough time and size scales to see how to keep Earth and the human species healthy long into the future"-- Provided by publisher.
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The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us
Diane Ackerman
"Humans have subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness. We tinker with nature at every opportunity; we garden the planet with our preferred species of plants and animals, many of them invasive; and we have even altered the climate, threatening our own extinction. Yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity ... Ackerman [explores] our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating--perhaps saving--our future and that of our fellow creatures."--Jacket.
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A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
Walter Alvarez
Big History, the field that integrates traditional historical scholarship with scientific insights to study the full sweep of our universe, has so far been the domain of historians. Famed geologist Walter Alvarez―best known for the “Impact Theory” explaining dinosaur extinction―has instead championed a science-first approach to Big History. Here he wields his unique expertise to give us a new appreciation for the incredible occurrences―from the Big Bang to the formation of supercontinents, the dawn of the Bronze Age, and beyond―that have led to our improbable place in the universe.
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Earth: Our Crowded Spaceship
Isaac Asimov
Discusses the problems faced by the Earth's inhabitants as population increases and energy sources, food, and land become more scarce.
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The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow and Empathy -- and Why They Matter
Marc Bekoff
"In The Emotional Lives of Animals, Marc Bekoff has pulled together the growing body of scientific evidence that supports the existence of a variety of emotions in other animals, richly illustrated by his own careful observations ... Combining careful scientific methodology with intuition and common sense, this book will be a great tool for those who are struggling to improve the lives of animals in environments where, so often, there is an almost total lack of understanding. I only hope it will persuade many people to reconsider the way they treat animals in the future."--Jane Goodall, from the foreword.
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Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals
Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce
"Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male? Or a rat who refused to push a lever for food when he saw that doing so caused another rat to be shocked? Aren t these clear signs that animals have recognizable emotions and moral intelligence? With Wild Justice Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce unequivocally answer yes. Marrying years of behavioral and cognitive research with compelling and moving anecdotes, Bekoff and Pierce reveal that animals exhibit a broad repertoire of moral behaviors, including fairness, empathy, trust, and reciprocity. Underlying these behaviors is a complex and nuanced range of emotions, backed by a high degree of intelligence and surprising behavioral flexibility. Animals, in short, are incredibly adept social beings, relying on rules of conduct to navigate intricate social networks that are essential to their survival. Ultimately, Bekoff and Pierce draw the astonishing conclusion that there is no moral gap between humans and other species: morality is an evolved trait that we unquestionably share with other social mammals.Sure to be controversial, Wild Justice offers not just cutting-edge science, but a provocative call to rethink our relationship with and our responsibilities toward our fellow animals."--Provided by publisher.
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Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
Susan Blackmore
"Consciousness, 'the last great mystery for science', has now become a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are opening up debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories using illustrations, lively cartoons, and experiments. Topics include vision and attention, theories of self and will, experiments on action and awareness, altered states of consciousness, and the effects of brain damage and drugs."--Publisher's description.
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Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Howard Bloom
Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion-member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world. Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality.
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Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Nick Bostrom
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence. But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed AI or otherwise to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation? To get closer to an answer to this question, we must make our way through a fascinating landscape of topics and considerations. Read the book and learn about oracles, genies, singletons; about boxing methods, tripwires, and mind crime; about humanity's cosmic endowment and differential technological development; indirect normativity, instrumental convergence, whole brain emulation and technology couplings; Malthusian economics and dystopian evolution; artificial intelligence, and biological cognitive enhancement, and collective intelligence.
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What Should We Be Worried About? Real Scenarios that Keep Scientists Up at Night
John Brockman
Posing the question "What should we be worried about?" to one hundred fifty of the world's greatest minds, this collection of responses reveals what about the present or the future worries each of them the most.
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Big History: From The Big Bang to the Present
Cynthia Stokes Brown
Big History interweaves different disciplines of knowledge, drawing on both the natural sciences and the human sciences, to offer an all-encompassing account of history on Earth. This new edition is more relevant than ever before, as we increasingly grapple with accelerating rates of change and, ultimately, the legacy we will bequeath to future generations. Here is a path-breaking portrait of our world, from the birth of the universe from a single point the size of an atom to life on a twenty-first-century planet inhabited by seven billion people.
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Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
Lester R. Brown
Explores the geopolitics of food scarcity. Presents an effort to raise public understanding of the challenges of food shortage and be an inspiration to action.
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Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Lester R. Brown
"Plan B 4.0 explores both the nature of this transition to a new energy economy and how it will affect our daily lives."--Back cover.
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The Great Transition: Shifiting from Fossil Fuiels to Solar and Wind Energy
Lester R. Brown
Overview: The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As oil insecurity deepens, the extraction risks of fossil fuels rise, and concerns about climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old economy, fueled by oil, natural gas, and coal is being replaced with one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Great Transition details the accelerating pace of this global energy revolution. As many countries become less enamored with coal and nuclear power, they are embracing an array of clean, renewable energies. Whereas solar energy projects were once small-scale, largely designed for residential use, energy investors are now building utility-scale solar projects. Strides are being made: some of the huge wind farm complexes under construction in China will each produce as much electricity as several nuclear power plants, and an electrified transport system supplemented by the use of bicycles could reshape the way we think about mobility.
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Mountain: An Evolutionary Epic
William Carney
Have you ever wondered what the universe has in store for you? Scientific revelation and planetary crisis are now expanding the scope of questions that have always stirred when people gaze into the night sky: How big and how old is all of this? How did we come to be and where are we going? Does purpose permeate creation? Where does my story fit within the story of the universe? Join June and her friends for the ultimate campfire story. Journey with them for a week in the backcountry, as they take in the evolving saga of the cosmos and work out their own unfolding lives within that epic context. Share their everyday—and life-shifting—dramas, from love and grief to work and creativity, from spiritual practice to climate crisis, from war to classroom. Unifying this chorus of voices, feel their common wonder at the symphonic chords and abiding dilemmas of cosmic history—here writ large on that thin film of life briefly expressed each summer, between the granite and hard stars of the high Sierra.
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Epic of Evolution: Seven Ages of the Cosmos
Eric Chaisson
How did everything around us-the air, the land, the sea, and the stars-originate? What is the source of order, form, and structure characterizing all material things? These are just some of the grand scientific questions Eric J. Chaisson, author of the classic work Cosmic Dawn, explores in his enthralling and illuminating history of the universe. Explaining new discoveries and a range of cutting-edge ideas and theories, Chaisson provides a creative and coherent synthesis of current scientific thinking on the universe's beginnings. He takes us on a tour of the seven ages of the cosmos, from the formless era of radiation through the origins of human culture. Along the way he examines the development of the most microscopic and the most immense aspects of our universe and the complex ways in which they interact. Drawing on recent breakthroughs in astrophysics and biochemistry, Chaisson discusses the contemporary scientific view that all objects-from quarks and quasars to microbes and the human mind-are interrelated. Researchers in all the natural sciences are beginning to identify an underlying pattern penetrating the fabric of existence-a sweepingly encompassing view of the formation, structure, and function of all objects in our multitudinous universe. Moreover, as Chaisson demonstrates, by deciphering the scenario of cosmic evolution, scientists can also determine how living organisms managed to inhabit the land, generate language, and create culture. Epic of Evolution offers a stunning view of how various changes, operating across almost incomprehensible domains of space and nearly inconceivable stretches of time and through the evolutionary combination of necessity and chance, have given rise to our galaxy, our star, our planet, and ourselves.
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Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature
Eric J. Chaisson
"We are connected to distant space and time not only by our imaginations but also through a common cosmic heritage. Emerging now from modern science is a unified scenario of the cosmos, including ourselves as sentient beings, based on the time-honored concept of change. From galaxies to snowflakes, from stars and planets to life itself, we are beginning to identify an underlying ubiquitous pattern penetrating the fabric of all the natural sciences - a sweepingly encompassing view of the order and structure of every known class of object in our richly endowed universe. This is the subject of Eric Chaisson's new book." "In Cosmic Evolution Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. Guided by notions of beauty and symmetry, by the search for simplicity and elegance, by the ambition to explain the widest range of phenomena with the fewest possible principles, Chaisson designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures. He shows us that neither new science nor appeals to nonscience are needed to understand the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary story, from quark to quasar, from microbe to mind."--Jacket.
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Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History
David Christian
An introduction to a new way of looking at history, from a perspective that stretches from the beginning of time to the present day, Maps of Time is world history on an unprecedented scale. Beginning with the Big Bang, David Christian views the interaction of the natural world with the more recent arrivals in flora and fauna, including human beings.
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This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity
David Christian
A great historian can make clear the connections between the first Homo sapiens and today's version of the species, and a great storyteller can make those connections come alive. David Christian is both. This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity makes the journey a fascinating one. Christian takes us from the Big Bang to the earliest foraging era to the present Anthropocene epoch. This popular work, now in its fifth printing, has been reorganized to help the student and expanded to include material on "big history." Enter This Fleeting World - and give up the preconception that anything old is boring. A compact, easy-to-read overview of world history, ideal for curriculum development, classroom preparation, and student review.
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Big History: Between Nothing and Everything
David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown, and Craig Benjamin
Big History: Between Nothing and Everything surveys the past not just of humanity, or even of planet Earth, but of the entire universe. In reading this book instructors and students will retrace a voyage that began 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang and the appearance of the universe. Big history incorporates findings from cosmology, earth and life sciences, and human history, and assembles them into a single, universal historical narrative of our universe and of our place within it.
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The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins
A preeminent scientist asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society from the Crusades to 9/11. He critiques God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence. In so doing, he makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just irrational, but potentially deadly. Dawkins has fashioned an impassioned, rigorous rebuttal to religion, to be embraced by anyone who sputters at the inconsistencies and cruelties that riddle the Bible, bristles at the inanity of "intelligent design," or agonizes over fundamentalism in the Middle East--or Middle America.--From publisher description.
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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Richard Dawkins
"Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, and combines them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder."--Jacket.
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Love Letter to the Milky Way: A Book of Poems
Drew Dellinger
A small book of very big poems. Drew Dellinger's poetry reaches out to the far ends of the Milky Way and to the inner depths of the soul. His poetry and performances have captivated thousands across six continents. He is, in the words of Cornell West, "one of the most creative, courageous and prophetic poets of his generation." This power of his poetry is tied to his passion for ecological survival and social justice movements. The Rev. Osagyefo Sekou calls Dellinger "the poet laureate of the global justice democracy movement."
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Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenonmenon
Daniel C. Dennett
An innovative thinker tackles the controversial question of why we believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future. For a growing number of people, there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. In this daring new book, distinguished philosopher Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks why. Where does our devotion to God come from and what purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? In a narrative that ranges widely through history, philosophy, and psychology, Dennett explores how organized religion evolved from folk beliefs and why it is such a potent force today. He contends that the "belief in belief" has fogged any attempt to rationally consider the existence of God and the relationship between divinity and human need.--From publisher
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Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals
Frans De Waal
Waal shows how ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait.
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Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved
Frans De Waal
'It's the animal in us', we often hear when we've been bad, But why not when we're good? 'Primates and Philosophers' tackles this question by exploring the biological foundations of one of humanity's most valued traits: morality.
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Earthwise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care
Calvin B. DeWitt
Sadly, our ways of life in today's global economy have led to increasing land and habitat destruction, pollution, species extinction, buildup of "greenhouse gases," and other degradations of the earth. But rather than grovel and wring our hands in despair, lifelong creation care scientist Calvin B. DeWitt suggests we discover a joyful, positive attitude about working together for good in this world. Looking forward in hope, we can make changes and take positive, lasting action that is more in harmony with the way the world works and is meant to be. This book, now in its third edition, helps to provide us and our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow citizens with practical information and ideas to become truly "earthwise."
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Creation: From Nothing Until Now
Willem B. Drees
Presenting a brief and accessible overview of contemporary scientific thought, Creation is an imaginative and poetic exploration of the origins of the universe. WIllem Drees assesses the religious and philosophical impact of scientific theories of evolution and the natural world, and examines the changing relationship between us and our planet.
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Bang! The Universe Verse: Book 1
James Lu Dunbar
This rhyming comic book explains the scientific concepts surrounding the origin of the universe, life on Earth and the human race, from the Big Bang to the scientific method.
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Great Apes: The Universe Verse: Book 3
James Lu Dunbar
The third and final book in The Universe Verse series, "Great Apes!" is a scientifically accurate rhyming comic book that explains the origin of the human race and the dawn of civilization.
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It's Alive! The Universe Verse: Book 2
James Lu Dunbar
This rhyming comic book explains the scientific concepts surrounding the origin of the universe, life on Earth with captivating illustrations and whimsical rhymes.
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The Universe Verse
James Lu Dunbar
The Universe Verse is a scientifically-accurate rhyming comic book about the origins of the universe, life on Earth and the human race. It introduces and illuminates the most fundamental features of our existence in a way that is engaging and accessible to a wide audience, including young children. This book contains most major scientific milestones known to humanity, all in one rhyming comic book. Including, but not limited to: energy, space, time, the four fundamental forces, matter, particles, atoms, elements, fusion, stars, E=MC2, supernovae, galaxies, planets, solar systems, Earth, planetary crust, atmosphere, water, life, variation, reproduction, survival, evolution, cells, DNA, genes, sex, biodiversity, the food web, bacteria, photosynthesis, extinctions, respiration, eukaryotes, endosymbiosis, chloroplasts, mitochondria, multicellular organisms, tissues, organs, perception, nerves, brains, aquatic, terrestrial, flying creatures, fossils, dinosaurs, mammals, primates, humans, consciousness, language, agriculture, civilization, math, writing, books and science!
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Religion Without God
Ronald Dworkin
Looks at the nature of religion, God's place in it, and the possibility of humanist religion without God.
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The Sun, The Genome and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions
Freeman J. Dyson
"In this visionary look into the future, Freeman Dyson argues that technological changes fundamentally alter our ethical and social arrangements and that three rapidly advancing new technologies - solar energy, genetic engineering, and worldwide communication - together have the potential to create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth." "Written with passionate conviction about the ethical uses of science, The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet is both a brilliant reinterpretation of the scientific process and a challenge to use new technologies to close, rather than widen, the gap between rich and poor."--Jacket.
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The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment
Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich
"Over millions of years and through countless genetic twists and turns, humanity has evolved into the dominant animal. We have populated the globe, reshaped most landscapes, eradicated myriad populations and species of other organisms, and even transformed the oceans and climate." "The vast environmental changes we have produced and the intricate cultures we have created are now shaping evolution. From the complex workings of our genes to what we eat and how we govern ourselves, we are changing our world and our world is changing us. We are creating our future. But what kind of future will it be?" "Renowned scientists and thinkers Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich tackle that fundamental question in this exploration of evolution, environment, and culture. The Dominant Animal is a scientific field trip across time and space, from the microscopic to the global. The Ehrlichs weave together the theories of Darwin, empirical studies of fruit flies, lizards, and disease, the fossil record, the psychology of perception and belief systems, the nature of the human genome, and the power of culture and environment into a single illuminating thread."--Jacket.
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Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe
Greg M. Epstein
Author Greg Epstein, the Humanist chaplain at Harvard, offers a world view for nonbelievers that dispenses with the hostility and intolerance of religion prevalent in national bestsellers like God is Not Great and The God Delusion. Epstein's Good Without God provides a constructive, challenging response to these manifestos by getting to the heart of Humanism and its positive belief in tolerance, community, morality, and good without having to rely on the guidance of a higher being.--From publisher description.
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Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines
Paul Fleischman
"We're living in an aha moment. Take 250 years of human ingenuity. Add abundant fossil fuels. The result: a population and lifestyle never seen before. The downsides weren't visible for centuries, but now they are. Suddenly everything needs rethinking -- suburbs, cars, fast food, cheap prices. It's a changed world. This book explains it. Using politics, psychology, and history for altitude, Eyes Wide Open shows how to see the principles driving events and attitudes, from vested interests to denial to big-country syndrome. Here's the briefing you need to comprehend the twenty-first century."--Back cover.
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Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants
Russell Merle Genet
A science story of how we came to be HUMANITY The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants by Russell M. Genet A highly-readable account of the physical, biological, and cultural evolution of humanity, from the big bang to present. The book makes a unique comparison between humans and chimpanzees as our genetic relatives and humans and ants as our social analogue. It also presents four possible future scenarios for humanity to allow the reader to "write their own ending."
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The Evolutionary Epic: Science's Story and Humanity's Response
Russel Genet (Ed), Brian Swimme (Ed), Linda Palmer (Ed), and Linda Gibler (Ed)
The essays in this book take you from the struggles of our primitive ancestors on the savannahs of Africa to a mountain climber’s epiphany on the snow-capped heights of the Andes, from the mysteries of the quantum world to the vast reaches of the universe. Begin with a story of humanity’s evolution from primeval stardust to planetary stardom. Then explore the emergence of the story through scientific research and wonder. View the multi-faceted story through unexpected lenses and follow the story as it is engages education, becoming a vital part of the enlightenment of young minds. Finally, experience the story as it shifts our scientific and cultural paradigms, serves our quest for a brighter future, and enriches humanity’s imaginative and spiritual dimensions. The Evolutionary Epic Science's Story and Humanity's Response Edited by Cheryl Genet, Russell Genet, Brian Swimme, Linda Palmer & Linda Gibler Foreword by David Christian
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The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volumes 1 - 7: From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great
Larry Gonick
An entertaining and informative illustrated guide that makes world history accessible, appealing, and funny.
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Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder From the World of Plants
Jane Goodall and Gail Hudson
In this book the author, a renowned naturalist examines the critical role that trees and plants play in our world. Long before she began her work with chimpanzees, she had a passion for the natural world. Now she opens our eyes to the profound relationship we have with the world of plants, exploring our dependence on the plant kingdom as food, medicine, and our helpers in the task of healing the harm we have inflicted on the natural world.
