Institute for the Study of Complex Systems
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      • Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind
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  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
    • Publications List, 1969-2025
    • Books
      • Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind
      • The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice
      • Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution
      • The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution
      • Nature’s Magic
    • Online Publications
    • Outtakes
    • Essays on Social Justice
    • Commentaries
    • Book Reviews
  • Topics
    • Emergence
    • Evolution
    • Information Theory
    • Social Justice
    • Synergistic Selection
    • Synergy
    • Thermodynamics
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Superorganism: Toward a New Social Contract for Our Endangered Species

By Peter Corning • Jul 31, 2023

As evidence of our global survival crisis continues to mount, the expression “too little, too late” comes to mind. We all live in an interdependent world which has an increasingly shared fate. We are participants in an emerging global “superorganism” that is dependent on close cooperation. 

Indeed, positive synergy (cooperative effects) has been the key to our evolutionary success as a species. However, our ultimate fate is now in jeopardy. Going forward, we must either create a more effective global society (with collective self-governance) or our species will very likely be convulsed by mass starvation, waves of desperate migrants, and lethal social conflict. The greatest threat we may face is each other, and a regression into tribalism and violent conflict. This Element has a more hopeful prescription for a new global social contract. It is based on the many examples of superorganisms – socially organized species – in the natural world, and in evolution. 

Advance Praise for Superorganism

This is a remarkable book. Peter Corning is one of those rare scholars who can span both the social sciences and biology, to show the importance of our human capacities and natural environment in understanding and dealing with the huge challenges for our future. Against the simplistic solutions offered by the populisms of the left and right, Corning lays out a way forward with a deep understanding of the complexities involved. This is a clarion call for local, national and global cooperation to deal with urgent problems affecting the future of humanity. No one should ignore this message.”

— Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Emeritus Professor in Management at Loughborough University London, Editor in Chief, Journal of Institutional Economics

“A very thought-provoking book that brings a glimmer of light into this darkening world.”

— Paul Ehrlich, Prof. Emeritus, Stanford University and co-author of Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic, among other books.

“This book is just what is needed for the global dialogue that we must have about how to navigate through our perfect storm of global crises.  Dr. Corning is at the leading edge of evolutionary biology, sweeping away our focus on hostile competition and, instead, showing that synergistic cooperation is the route to the friendly collaboration that is necessary to build a caring, inclusive future.”

–Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D., Living Systems Design consultant and author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution

“The mortal threat we face from climate chaos and ecological overshoot demands bold new ideas for transformative change. Peter Corning offers a sweeping vision of global self-governance and cooperation for deep sustainability that requires us to think (and act) outside the box. It may be our only hope.”

–Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution and host of “The Future is Calling us to Greatness.”

“Peter Corning offers a wealth of deeply researched ways of addressing our global environmental crisis.  His approach includes many practical proposals for shifting economic markets away from their current destructive path, directing us instead toward renewable energy and the resources we track on our Green Transition Scoreboard®.  He also proposes major changes in our global food system, along with a new “basic needs guarantee” that goes beyond the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and he proposes new international agreements and agencies to deal with challenges that can no longer be solved by any one country.  An important addition that can help guide the many global initiatives needed to steer humanity toward survival and a sustainable common future.”

–Hazel Henderson, author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books.  CEO, Ethical Markets Media (a Certified B Corporation).

“Peter Corning’s new book, Superorganism, is very timely, insightful, and, given the Earth’s current challenges, proactively positive and hopeful — an urgent message for us all!”

— John Jeavons, Executive Director, Ecology Action

Category: Evolution • Social Justice

Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems

Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems

In this volume, a number of biologists and philosophers of science, greatly expand on the thesis that “teleonomy” (“internal” purposiveness and goal-directedness) is a unique and important property of living organisms and that it has exerted a major influence over the course of evolutionary history.

Superorganism

Superorganism

As evidence of our global survival crisis continues to mount, the expression “too little, too late” comes to mind. We all live in an interdependent world which has an increasingly shared fate. We are participants in an emerging global “superorganism” that is dependent on close cooperation.

Synergistic Selection

Synergistic Selection Book Cover

Synergistic Selection is being hailed as a major contribution to what is perhaps the greatest shift in our understanding of evolution since The Origin of Species. As Corning puts it: “Nothing about the evolution of biological complexity makes sense except in the light of synergy.... One of the great take-home lessons from the epic of evolution is that cooperation produces synergy, and synergy is the way forward. The arc of evolution bends toward synergy.”

The Fair Society

The Fair Society

The Fair Society calls for a new social contract based on three biologically-grounded fairness principles – equality in relation to our “basic needs,” equity in providing rewards for merit, and reciprocity to repay the benefits we receive from others and society.

Holistic Darwinism

Holistic Darwinism Book Cover

Calls for a paradigm shift, a refocusing of evolutionary biology to address the rise of complex systems over time and their emergence as distinct units of selection, with special reference to the causal role of synergy, thermodynamics, information theory, and the bioeconomic influences underlying evolutionary change.

Nature’s Magic

Nature's Way Book Cover

Nature’s Magic presents a bold new vision of the evolutionary process – from the Big Bang to the 21st century. Synergy of various kinds is not only a ubiquitous aspect of the natural world but it has also been a wellspring of creativity and the “driver” of the broad evolutionary trend toward increased complexity, in nature and in human societies alike.

Synergism Hypothesis

Synergism Hypothesis Book Cover

A major causal theory of complexity in evolution at all levels, based on the functional advantages arising from synergistic effects of varying kinds.

Copyright Notice

All of the papers included at this site have previously been copyrighted in various print media, including (mostly) professional conference proceedings and scholarly journals. These may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior authorization. "Commentaries" by ISCS associates will also be posted from time to time. These will include more informal "op-ed" material (and some short items for various publications) on complexity and complex systems, including applications to contemporary economic, social and political concerns.

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