Graeme Snooks
Graeme Snooks is a systems theorist who has developed a general dynamic theory - the "dynamic-strategy" theory - to explain and predict complex living systems. The theory has been employed to analyse the fluctuating fortunes of life over the past 4,000 million years (myrs) and human society over the past 2 myrs; to investigate the nature of the human mind; to analyse contemporary economic problems (inflation, financial crises, climate change); to explore socio-political issues (population change, democracy versus totalitarianism, "clash of civilisations", disease [COVID-19] control, the role of religion, the future of Western Civilization); to reflect on philosophical and psychological questions (human nature, truth, evil, freedom, the meaning of life); to provide a realist theory of the mind for a mindless AI; and to predict the future of human civilisation. The dynamic-strategy theory, which employs a demand-side approach, is unique in a world of supply-side theories; and its unique quality has led to the discovery of the dynamic life system that the author calls the "strategic logos". The strategic logos is a materialist system that is conceptually similar to the cosmos analysed by physicists, and to the human mind studied by psychologists. Five decades of research and publication in the fields of global dynamics and biological and social complexity have been brought together in Graeme Snooks' recently (November 2015) published book "ARK OF THE SUN: the improbable voyage of life". This exploration of existence has provided the basis for a novel philosophy of life, which is presented in his book "ULTIMATE REALITY & ITS DISSIDENTS" (March 2016). Snooks' latest (February 2021) book, GREAT MYTHS TO DIE FOR, is a guide for avoiding man-made disasters in the future.
From 1989 to 2010 Graeme Snooks was the foundation Coghlan Research Professor in Economics & History in the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University. Since 2010 he has been the Executive Director of the Institute of Global Dynamic Systems in Canberra. A full list of publications can be found on "Graeme Snooks Researchgate" (only a small selection shown here). His home site is:
https://sites.google.com/site/graemesnooks/
Address: Canberra, Australia
From 1989 to 2010 Graeme Snooks was the foundation Coghlan Research Professor in Economics & History in the Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University. Since 2010 he has been the Executive Director of the Institute of Global Dynamic Systems in Canberra. A full list of publications can be found on "Graeme Snooks Researchgate" (only a small selection shown here). His home site is:
https://sites.google.com/site/graemesnooks/
Address: Canberra, Australia
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Books by Graeme Snooks
ARK OF THE SUN shows and explains how life on Earth is driven and shaped by the newly discovered dynamic life system that the author calls the "strategic logos". The "logos" is an entropy-defying, shock-deflecting system that has enabled biological forms and their societies to prosper in a hostile world. It is a system composed of materialist forces conceptually similar to the cosmos analysed by physicists, and to the human mind studied by psychologists. And it is a system that must be understood if life is to survive deep into the future.
This book is essential to the understanding of life not only on Earth but also wherever else in the Universe it might have emerged. And the theories it contains make possible what the intellectual tradition stretching from the ancient Greeks, through Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Darwin and Freud, down to the present, could never achieve -- a holistic understanding of biological and social dynamics.
ARK OF THE SUN shows and explains how life on Earth is driven and shaped by the newly discovered dynamic life system that the author calls the "strategic logos". The "logos" is an entropy-defying, shock-deflecting system that has enabled biological forms and their societies to prosper in a hostile world. It is a system composed of materialist forces conceptually similar to the cosmos analysed by physicists, and to the human mind studied by psychologists. And it is a system that must be understood if life is to survive deep into the future.
This book is essential to the understanding of life not only on Earth but also wherever else in the Universe it might have emerged. And the theories it contains make possible what the intellectual tradition stretching from the ancient Greeks, through Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Darwin and Freud, down to the present, could never achieve -- a holistic understanding of biological and social dynamics.
In order to go beyond reason, mankind has developed great myths about its ability to control the forces of destiny. These great myths provide the confidence required to live without total despair and to be able to step confidently into the future. Great myths about gods and super heroes have emerged in all societies in the past. Even today in modern technological societies we invest the masters of science, such as medical, climate and technological scientists, with a god-like status. We expect them to be able to cure all maladies of the body and mind, to protect us from the terrorist attacks of disease, to transform our hostile world into a human-friendly universe, and to provide a soft landing for exponential technological change that, some say, is projecting us at neck-breaking speed into the future. Surely it will take god-like powers to change the world's climate, to control the "technological singularity" and, ultimately, to transcend the natural force of entropy that threatens to eliminate all life in the universe.
This article is Essay One in my book GREAT MYTHS TO DIE FOR: ESSAYS ON THE SHIP OF METAPHYSICAL FOOLS (IGDS eBooks: February 2021). Recall what Sebastian Brant wrote in THE SHIP OF FOOLS (1494):
"The world is full of superstition,
Men prophesy by star's position
And every fool deems this his mission
The whole world wants to be deceived."
Surely this is an apt description of the proceedings of the November 2022 Climate Summit in Egypt!