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    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future
    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future
    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future
    Ebook191 pages1 hour

    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future

    By Jonas Salk, Jonathan Salk, David Dewane and Elizabeth H Blackburn

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    About this ebook

    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future provides a startling, fresh new message of understanding, perspective and hope for today’s tense, rapid-fire, kaleidoscopically changing world. 

    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future provides a startling, fresh new message of understanding, perspective and hope for today’s tense, rapid-fire, kaleidoscopically changing world. Drawn from the writings of visionary scientist Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine, extended and developed by his son Jonathan, the message of the book explodes from the past and sheds light on tensions that besiege us and the currents of discord that are raging as these words are written. More importantly, it indicates a way forward out of our current situation.

    Written by a world-famous doctor and folk hero, based on population data, rich in visual imagery, elegantly designed, and clearly written,  A New Reality is unique in the marketplace. Readable in one or two sittings, it is accessible to the general reader while at the same time being of essential value to policy makers and academics. Its brevity and simplicity of design belie the importance and sophistication of its message.

     “We are at a point in the course of human social evolution when the demands of survival converge with the higher ideals of humankind and the well-being and flourishing of human society. It is up to us to see that we navigate this transition, adapting to and emerging in a new reality.” —A New Reality

    Our country is divided and polarized. Terrorism is a major threat throughout much of the world. Mass migrations are causing national and international tension. Population growth continues to increase, especially in the developing regions of the world. Controversy rages as to the use of fossil fuels versus the development of alternative forms of energy. Disagreement continues about climate change. Opposing currents of opinion collide as to how much we should help other areas in the world and how much to help ourselves. Basic values are in conflict.

    More than 40 years ago, Jonas Salk understood that we are at a unique moment in the history of the human species. After centuries of increase, population growth has begun to slow and is trending toward equilibrium. This change is accompanied by an equally significant change in human values—a shift from those based on unlimited availability of resources, unremitting growth, excess, independence, competition and short-term thinking to those based on limits, equilibrium, balance, interdependence, cooperation and long-term thinking. This momentous transition is the source of far-reaching tension and conflict.

    The way through this difficult era is to understand its basis and to focus on new values that will be of the greatest benefit to humankind. There is an urgency, however, and failure to adapt will result in disaster both for humanity and for the planet as a whole.

     A New Reality delivers a message of both caution and hope. Readers across the social and political spectrum will find it a reasoned and balanced counterpoint to current social and political trends. Its elegant design and long-range perspective will appeal to general readers, policy makers, millennials, baby boomers, teachers, and students, filling a need in the marketplace for a work of positivity and wisdom in otherwise bleak times.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCity Point Press
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781947951051
    A New Reality: Human Evolution for a Sustainable Future

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      Book preview

      A New Reality - Jonas Salk

      book coverA New Reality half title page

      Also by Jonas Salk

      Man Unfolding

      The Survival of the Wisest

      Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason

      A New Reality, Human Evolution for a sustainable future, by Jonas Salk and Jonathan Salk

      Copyright © 2018 by Jonas Salk and Jonathan Salk

      All rights reserved.

      No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without the express written permission of the publisher.

      City Point Press

      


      286 Curtis Avenue Stratford CT 06615

      www.citypointpress.com

      Hardcover ISBN 978-1-947951-04-4

      eBook ISBN 978-1-947951-05-1

      Cover and book design by Courtney Garvin

      ebook production by BNGO Books

      To the children of Epoch B,

      their children,

      and all the generations to follow.

      The first edition of this book was made possible, in part, through the support of the United Nations Population Fund. The revised edition has received the support of private donors to the Arizona Community Foundation Collaborative Fund.

      Any author’s proceeds from sales of this book will be donated to the Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation and to the World Population and Human Values Fund of the Arizona Community Foundation.

      JONAS SALK, 1954

      Hulton Archive / Stringer Image of Jonas Salk

      used with permission of the family of Jonas Salk

      Jonas Salk’s wish was that his ideas would continue to be disseminated so that, like a vaccine, they might have the most positive effect on the greatest number of people.

      Jonas Salk, who died in 1995, was in the mid-1950s the developer of the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis. He went on to found and help design the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, now a renowned center for basic biological research. What few people know is that in the last third of his life, he devoted much of his time and creative energy to the development of an evolutionary philosophy based on biological and natural principles. His wish was that these ideas would have the effect of giving people a scientific basis for hope and provide opportunities to enhance human well-being throughout the world.

      Contents

      Foreword

      Preface

      Part One: Sigmoid Curves

      Part Two: World Population Trends

      Part Three: A New Epoch

      Part Four: Paradox and Conflict

      Part Five: Resolution and Integration

      Epilogue: A Favorable Outcome

      Notes

      Related Readings

      Sponsors and Resources

      Acknowledgments

      Special Thanks

      Foreword

      An inescapable reality is that there are now too many humans on Earth for us, or the planet, to handle well. Population growth, a burning topic some years ago, has somewhat faded from public prominence in recent years. This small but compelling book is a welcome and timely reminder of the issues of overpopulation, with a fresh look at the ways we can approach this reality.

      The burgeoning world population of humans has commonly been framed in Malthusian terms, emphasizing Darwinism with its brutal selection of the fittest as an inevitable, and perhaps only, consequence of an overcrowded world. Jonas Salk took seriously, throughout his life, the overarching guideline called Tikkun olam (Hebrew: םלוע ןוקית) literally translated as repair of the world, alternatively meaning construction for eternity). Tikkun olam is a concept in Judaism that has been taken to mean aspiration towards actions and behaviors that are constructive and beneficial. Jonas Salk’s better-known life work, development of the polio vaccine that has been a life saver, literally, for millions around the globe, can be regarded as a remarkable exemplar of Tikkun olam. But Jonas Salk’s legacy should rightly be broadened beyond even this, because the way he thought about the looming human population problem was to envisage a new era to which humanity could aspire.

      In short, as is elegantly unfolded in this book (co-authored by Jonas Salk and his son Jonathan Salk), Jonas Salk envisioned that an inflection point in human population growth—a transition from exponential rapid growth, to slower and, eventually, zero population growth—would also usher in an inflection point in human social behaviors and mores, leading to a much more collaborative ethos and way of doing things. Rather than our latter-day humanity’s central focus on competing in order to gain one’s own individual betterment and achievements (defining what Salk dubs Epoch A), individuals would evolve toward ways more attuned to thinking beyond that, through expanding into wider and more generous frames of mind and spirit to encompass the needs, well-being, and attainment of many more, across more societies (Epoch B). Through use of simple diagrams and the building up of ideas, the book draws us gently but implacably into this vision.

      Salk certainly is onto something here. While he was ahead of mainstream thinking at the time of the publication of the first edition of this book (1981), many of his ideas are already echoed much more commonly than they were then. As we look around us, in more recent years we see such trends at play in many arenas. Witness the evolving views of corporate leadership toward being more team- and participant-driven, rather than dictated by a sole top-dog figure. More and more academic learning and research are accomplished through fruitful interactions among multiple individuals, rather

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