The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With his first book, White, a Boston systems-management consultant and writer for space journals, joins ranks with space-colonization evangelists Carl Sagan, Gerard K. O'Neill and their visionary ilk in presenting his theories on our space future. In his view, a new space movement is beginning, one which will require a philosophically grounded policy to drive it. Focusing less on emerging technology than on what he terms the Overview Effectthe paradigm shift experienced by astronauts who've responded deeply to the sight of Earth from spacehe here interviews 24 astronauts ranging from Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard to Sen. ``Jake'' Garn, who was a shuttle traveler before the Challenger tragedy. White sees space explorers as ``explorer fish,'' venturing into space and, while creating new civilizations in three stages that he calls Terra, Solarius and Galaxie, furthering new growth in their own human evolution. A wild dreambut the author programs it provocatively within the bounds of science, letting it grow out of the awe he shows to be at the root of the Overview Effect. (November 11)

Library Journal

That we have no philosophy of space exploration has been seen as a failing of U.S. space policy. White attempts to develop both a philosophy and a psychology of space to guide future explorations. He argues that space exploration is the next step in evolution and will lead to a shift in human consciousness from an earth-centered frame of reference to one centered on the solar system and, eventually, the entire galaxy. Interviews with astronauts describing their experience with this ``Overview Effect'' lend firsthand authority to White's construct. For larger collections. Thomas J. Frieling, Bainbridge Junior Coll. Lib., Ga.

Using interviews with and writings by astronauts and cosmonauts, discusses how viewing the Earth from space and from the moon affect space explorers' perceptions of the world and humanity, and how those changes are likewise felt in contemporary society. The author views space exploration and eventual colonization as an inevitable step in the evolution of human society and consciousness, one which offers new perspectives on the problems facing us down here on Earth. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.