Living Systems with Fritjof Capra, Ph.D.

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A new scientific understanding of life at all levels of living systems is currently evolving. At its heart is the awareness that everything is interconnected and interrelated. Out of this awareness comes the greatest challenge of our times - creating sustainable communities. Capra describes what he means when he suggests that we must shift from linear thinking to systems thinking. While we have been told for decades that we live in the Information Age, Fritjof Capra says, "The idea that success in the 21st century will depend on access to information is hype; it's nonsense. There is enough information - we have an information overload. Success and survival in the 21st century will depend on ecological awareness and on new ideas of how to change our technology and ways of doing business. Our children need to learn values, ideas, knowledge and wisdom, not just how to use computers to access more and more information." (hosted by Michael Toms)

Bio

Fritjof Capra, Ph.D. physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, which promotes ecology and systems thinking in primary and secondary education. He is on the faculty of Schumacher College, an international center for ecological studies in England, and frequently gives management seminars for top executives.

Fritjof Capra’s books include:

• The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Shambhala 1975)
• The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture (Simon & Schuster 1984)
• Uncommon Wisdom: Conversations With Remarkable People (1988)
• The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems (1996)
• The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living (Anchor 2004)
• The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance (Doubleday 2007).
• The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision (co-author Pier Luigi Luisi) (Cambridge University Press 2014)
• Learning from Leonardo: Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius (Berrett-Koehler 2013)

To learn more about the work of Fritjof Capra go to www.fritjofcapra.net.

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• How you can address the greatest challenge of our times
• What is the role of the arts in deep ecology
• How the shift from linear thinking to systems thinking in the sciences affects us now and in the future
• How to understand the complexity of living systems and life itself
• Why creativity is the driving force of evolution
• What religion and deep ecology have in common
• What's really behind the information age

Host: Michael Toms       Interview Date: 11/25/1997        Program Number: 2685

Music Included

From Album: Bridge of Dreams
Artist: David Lanz and Paul Speer
1993 Narada Equinoxe #NAR 3P-2816

From Album: Beyond the Mind's Eye
Artist: Jan Hammer
1992 Miramar Recordings MPCD 2902