Toward a New Social Contract for Our Endangered Species
Cambridge University Press, 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