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eBook
Gaian Systems
2020
Overview
A groundbreaking look at Gaia theory's intersections
with neocybernetic systems theory
Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and
varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric
chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis. Gaian
Systems is a pioneering exploration of the dynamic and complex
evolution of Gaia's many variants, with special attention to
Margulis's foundational role in these developments.
Bruce Clarke assesses the different dialects of systems theory
brought to bear on Gaia discourse. Focusing in particular on
Margulis's work-including multiple pieces of her unpublished Gaia
correspondence-he shows how her research and that of Lovelock was
concurrent and conceptually parallel with the new discourse of
self-referential systems that emerged within neocybernetic systems
theory. The recent Gaia writings of Donna Haraway, Isabelle
Stengers, and Bruno Latour contest its cybernetic status. Clarke
engages Latour on the issue of Gaia's systems description and
extends his own systems-theoretical synthesis under what he terms
\"metabiotic Gaia.\" This study illuminates current issues in
neighboring theoretical conversations-from biopolitics and the
immunitary paradigm to NASA astrobiology and the Anthropocene.
Along the way, he points to science fiction as a vehicle of Gaian
thought.
Delving into many issues not previously treated in accounts of
Gaia, Gaian Systems describes the history of a theory that
has the potential to help us survive an environmental crisis of our
own making.
Publisher
University of Minnesota Press
Subject
ISBN
1517909120, 9781517909123
