Cosmos & culture : cultural evolution in a cosmic context

Title:

Author:

Dick, Steven J.

Publication Information:

[Washington, DC] : [National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of External Relations, History Division], [2009]

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 602 pages) : illustrations (some color).

Series:

NASA SP ; 2009-4802

NASA SP (Series) ; 4802.

Summary:

From GPO Bookstore's Website: Authors with diverse backgrounds in science, history, anthropology, and more, consider culture in the context of the cosmos. How does our knowledge of cosmic evolution affect terrestrial culture? Conversely, how does our knowledge of cultural evolution affect our thinking about possible cultures in the cosmos? Are life, mind, and culture of fundamental significance to the grand story of the cosmos that has generated its own self-understanding through science, rational reasoning, and mathematics? Book includes bibliographical references and an index.

General Note:

Paper version available for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O.

Language:

English

Contents:

Introduction / Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella -- Cosmic evolution : state of the science / Eric J. Chaisson -- Cosmic evolution : history, culture, and human destiny / Steven J. Dick -- Social evolution : state of the field / Kathryn Denning -- The evolution of culture / Daniel C. Dennett -- The big burp and the multiplanetary mandate / Howard Bloom -- Evo devo universe? A framework for speculations on cosmic culture / John M. Smart -- Dangerous memes; or, What the Pandorans let loose / Susan Blackmore -- Cosmocultural evolution : the coevolution of culture and cosmos and the creation of cosmic value / Mark L. Lupisella -- The intelligent universe / James Gardner -- Life, mind, and culture as fundamental properties of the universe / Paul C.W. Davies -- The value of "L" and the cosmic bottleneck / Seth Shostak -- Encoding our origins : communicating the evolutionary epic in interstellar messages / Douglas A. Vakoch -- History and science after the chronometric revolution / David Christian -- Bringing culture to cosmos : the postbiological universe / Steven J. Dick -- Bringing cosmos to culture : Harlow Shapley and the uses of cosmic evolution / JoAnn Palmeri.

Subject Term:

Cosmology -- History.

Astronomy -- History.

Culture -- Origin.

Social evolution.

Human evolution.

Astronomy. (OCoLC)fst00819673

Cosmology. (OCoLC)fst00880600

Culture -- Origin. (OCoLC)fst00885073

Human evolution. (OCoLC)fst00963030

Social evolution. (OCoLC)fst01122456

Genre: