Dear David,
Ken Kittlitz says that he has already written a review of The Lucifer
Principle: a scientific expedition into the forces of history for
lucifer.com. However I couldn't find it.
I'm curious as the whether you'd be interested in setting up a
reciprocal web-link to The Lucifer Principle's site at
http://www.bookworld.com. The Lucifer Principle site includes a page of
hyperlinks which act as open sesames to a wide variety of resources in
the sciences and in history. The list keeps growing and becoming more
valuable all the time. And your site would prove extremely useful to my
site's visitors
Equallyimportant, I suspect (and I may be wrong) that The Lucifer
Principle: a scientific expedition into the forces of history may well
interest you personally, and that it may be worthy of consideration for
your site's main recommended reading list. Here are some reasons why:
"Good and scary historical perspective on meme evolution. A look at
how memetic 'superorganisms' evolve to take advantage of man's
animal instincts, chief among them the 'us-vs.-them' instinct.
Comparing present society to past and primate, Bloom leaves us
wondering if we've come very far and worrying about where we're
going." Richard Brodie, author, Virus of the Mind
"controversial yet compelling," Howard Gardner, Harvard University,
author of Multiple Intelligences
"A revolutionary vision of the relationship between psychology and
history. The Lucifer Principle will have a profound impact on our
concepts of human nature. It is astonishing that a book of this
importance could be such a pleasure to read." Elizabeth F. Loftus,
Professor of Psychology, University of Washington, author of Memory
and Eyewitness Testimony
"[a] fascinating work.... Blooms's theory may be summarized thusly:
First, 'Replicators....(genes are one example) crank out their
goods so cheaply that the end results are appalling expendable.
Among these expendable products are you and me.' Second, human
beings, like all other forms of life from mongeese to monkeys,
exist within a superorganism: 'We are,' Bloom writes, 'disposable
parts of a being larger than ourselves.' Third, 'meme[s]...self-
replicating cluster(s) of ideas...become the glue that holds
together civilizations.' Fourth, 'the neural net, the group
mind...turns us into components of a massive learning machine.' And
lastly, 'pecking orders exist among men, monkeys, wasps, and even
nations,' which 'help(s) explain why the danger of barbarians is
real and why the assumptions of our foreign policies are often
wrong.'" Sean O'Neill, LA Village View
"Howard Bloom has written a 'World History' from a new and dif-
ferent viewpoint based upon the psychological structure and natural
predispositions of the human mind. His story, with its brash
speculations, is a challenging and welcome alternative to those
based on theistic or political assumptions. Read The Lucifer
Principle, and ponder." Horace Barlow, Royal Society Research
professor of Physiology, Cambridge University
"a powerful thinking tool, complex and ambitious, bold, with an
exceptional ability to integrate across an astonishing range of
scientific information. I found myself alternating between 'Wow!'
and 'Aha!' experiences. Excellent, absolutely fascinating and
momentous." Allen Johnson, former chairman, anthropology
department, UCLA, co-author of The Evolution of Human Societies
"Fascinating. The details--historical and scientific--constitute
an education in themselves. But they are all directed to a central
idea that is totally on target, and flicks a gauntlet across the
face of fashionable intellectual dogmatists and professional
utopians." Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory,
Rutgers University, author of The Search For Society.
"Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human
condition, and dumbfounded by the fusillade of eclectic data that
arrives with the swiftness and intensity of a furious tennis
volley. His style is effortless, engaging, witty and brisk.... He
draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly
fields...and meticulously supports every bit of information...."
Washington Post
"Howard Bloom should be taking notes on what he is doing virtually
every minute of every day; he is literally making scientific
history." Dr. Christopher Boehm, Director of the Jane Goodall
Research Center, USC
Be well--Howard
-- Howard Bloom 705 President Street Brooklyn, NY 11215 phone 718 622 2278 fax 718 398 2551 e-mail howlbloom@aol.com