The Woven World

Based on the 2023 Report to the Club of Rome, this book systematically explores the global crisis confronting humanity. The authors interpret this crisis as a threefold phenomenon: a phase crisis of industrial society, an epistemic crisis of scientific thinking, and that of complexity. The first part situates the report within the intellectual tradition of the Club of Rome, drawing on original forecasting methods and critically assessing system and world-system approaches. The second part develops a theory of civilisational phase crises and examines the current postindustrial crisis in technological, social, climatic, and regional terms. The final section looks beyond the crisis to explore emerging forms of cognition and intelligence and viable responses to the AI hyper-challenge. The book aims at transiting from alarmist predictions to a more rational approach to forecasting. It will appeal to scholars, policymakers, and intellectually curious readers, interested in shaping the future.