Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene
Book Description:
Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020). Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis. Gaian Systems explores the dynamic and complex evolution of Gaia's many variants, with special attention to Margulis's foundational role in these developments. Bruce Clarke assesses the different dialects of systems theory brought to bear on Gaia discourse. Focusing in particular on Margulis's work—including multiple pieces of her unpublished Gaia correspondence—he shows how her research and that of Lovelock was concurrent and conceptually parallel with the new discourse of self-referential systems that emerged within neocybernetic systems theory. This study illuminates current issues in neighboring theoretical conversations—from biopolitics and the immunitary paradigm to NASA astrobiology and the Anthropocene. Along the way, he points to science fiction as a vehicle of Gaian thought. Delving into many issues not previously treated in accounts of Gaia, Gaian Systems describes the history of a theory that has the potential to help us survive an environmental crisis of our own making.
Author Bio:
Bruce Clarke is Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Literature and Science in the Department of English at Texas Tech University, and the 2019 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress. His research focuses on systems theory, narrative theory, and Gaia theory. He was chair of TTU's Department of English (2012-17), and president of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (2007-08). His books include Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020), Neocybernetics and Narrative (Minnesota 2014), Posthuman Metamorphosis: Narrative and Systems (Fordham 2008), and Energy Forms: Allegory and Science in the Era of Classical Thermodynamics (Michigan 2001). His edited volumes include Posthuman Metamorphosis: The Science Fiction of Joan Slonczewski (Palgrave 2020); The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Posthuman, with Manuela Rossini (Cambridge 2017); and Earth, Life, and System: Evolution and Ecology on a Gaian Planet (Fordham 2015).
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