Cosmos & Culture

This free anthropology textbook is being offered by the folks at NASA. Cosmos & Culture, Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context contains 15 chapters written by different scholars and educators from around the world (short bios of each are included) and was edited by Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella, both of whom also contributed chapters.

This textbook looks at cosmic evolution which is the study of the universe and its constituent parts and how they are constantly evolving. The authors represent a variety of fields in science, history, and anthropology and discuss culture in the context of the universe.

From the Preface the text is described as containing four general themes, “1) Long-term cosmic perspectives can be theoretically and practically illuminat- ing for reflecting on culture; 2) cosmology deeply affects and informs culture; 3) culture may have surprising significance in overall cosmic evolution; and 4) expansion into the wider universe is an important, perhaps critical, endeavor. It is our firm belief that these are themes that can and should be more deeply investigated as our terrestrial culture learns more about the cosmos around us.”

Table of Contents on this Cosmic Evolution Textbook

Part 1: The Cosmic Context
Chapter 1: Cosmic Evolution – State of the Science
Chapter 2: Cosmic Evolution – History, Culture, and Human Destiny
Part 2: Cultural Evolution
Chapter 3: Social Evolution – State of the Field
Chapter 4: The Evolution of Culture
Chapter 5: The Big Burp and the Multiplanetary Mandate
Chapter 6: Evo Devo Universe? – A Framework for Speculations on Cosmic Culture
Dangerous Memes; or, What the Pandorans Let Loose
Part 3: Cosmos and Culture
Chapter 8: Cosmocultural Evolution – The Coevolution of Culture and Cosmos and the Creation of Cosmic Value
Chapter 9: The Intelligent Universe
Chapter 10: Life, Mind, and Culture as Fundamental Properties of the Universe
Chapter 11: The Value of “L” and the Cosmic Bottleneck
Chapter 12: Encoding Our Origins – Communicating the Evolutionary Epic in Interstellar Messages
Chapter 13: History and Science after the Chronometric Revolution
Chapter 14: Bringing Culture to Cosmos – The Postbiological Universe
Chapter 15: Brining Cosmos to Culture – Harlow Shapley and the Uses of Cosmic Evolution
Contributors
NASA History Series

Multiple Versions

This free online textbook is offered in several formats including Kindle Readers and all other ebook readers.

   

View this Free Online Material at the source:
 
Cosmos & Culture

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