If you are concerned about the future of human life on this planet from an ecosystem point of view this is a key book to read. Stuart Brand brings up issues that will be controversial to ecologists, conservationists and lay people alike but approached pragmatically as contributors to ecosystem stability. Some of the key ideas and references in this text are the most well thought out, practical, internally consistent I have ever found collected in one place.
The biggest question is that we may need to rethink the idea of man vs. ecosystem in the sense that we may need to engineer it for our own long-term survival. That to assume that the environment is resilient enough to sort things out on its own might be a dangerous existential view. ( )

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It's still quite relevant, but occasionally shows its twelve-year-old age. Lots of activity in the climate sector in the last few years, and you'll need to read more broadly to get coverage of that.

Stewart Brand is a captivating writer and a genuine polymath, though, so this is an outstanding overview both of the seriousness of the coming climate crisis, and of the practical work that we can do that will address it.

Strongly recommended. ( )

Superficially-assessed convictions; I don't recognise any discipline in Brand's reasoning or writing. ( )

I loved this book for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the thing I loved best about it is how Brand examined his convictions and compared them to the latest and best factual evidence he could find and changed his mind. And that's what science means to me, that continual re-evaluation of things we think we know. The ability to change one's belief system so profoundly at Brand's age is a thing of beauty, and I admire him for it.

I found the subjects he covers in this book to be very interesting. His arguments are convincing. I was already pretty pro-gene manipulation before reading this, but I had retained my knee-jerk 1970s ere bias against nuclear power. It's one of those perception bending books. No doubt some of Brand's positions will need to be re-thought in the future, but he's up for that. I had never really thought about cities and how they work, so that part was fresh for me, too.

I loved the concept that we really don't need to plan for things that last a thousand thousand years (nuclear waste storage, f'rinstance), but rather we should trust future generations a little more. We need to come up with a perfectly safe and doable hundred year plan, and let engineers engineer new and better solutions between now and then. Technology will step up to that plate. It's hubris to think that we know better than our children's children's children will.

The more you know, the less you fear. Highly recommended. ( )

A man after my own heart. I'd love to chomp down on GM vegie burgers while working the controls of a nuclear power station. No, no sarcasm: I really do think that Stewart is on the right path here. He flays various environmental organisations for their backward views and shows them to be packed full of pathetically irrational and hypocritical ideologues. ( )