This is a paperback facsimile of an extremely difficult book to find.
In 1973, pioneering vaccine researcher Jonas Salk penned The Survival of the Wisest. Salk’s work was a zeitgeist. It embodied the very essence of why he has become among the most consequential scientists of the twentieth century. Salk reminds us that in modern times humanity has undergone a metamorphosis from typifying the Darwinian notion of competition (survival of the fittest) to a species firmly planted in cooperation and learning (survival of the “wisest”). This is what sets man apart from the beast, from vicious, carnal nature: the ability to learn and grow from the past.
Book contents: Introduction: the wisdom of nature A way to perceive The sigmoid curve What happens at the point of inflection? Conflict in values Biologic analogues of the being & the ego The physical, the biological & the metabiological Mutations -- A new kind of human animal -- Beyond coexistence : the need for balanced coalescence -- To distinguish the wholesome from the sick -- Man, his own victim -- The philosophy of "and" -- Emergence of being from ego domination -- Transition from epoch A to epoch B -- Cosmic perspective -- To behave "as if" -- Conclusion: wisdom, a new kind of fitness
