A very poor introduction to the greatest living philospher
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Wilber originally intended this as a serious academic critique of post-modernism but turned it into a novel in a week when some of his friends found the original manuscript too negative. The published version pokes fun at postmodernism's tendency for reductionism by creating a 2-dimensional novel with little merit in a postmodernist style. This conceit allows Wilber to demonstrate the recursive irony which he holds to be post-modernism's ultimate undoing. However, in the process the reader is left with a 2-dimensional novel which is very unrewarding. The disappointing thing is that Wilber is a thinker whose staggering depth, range and originality is completely absent from this book. I strongly recommend A Theory of Everything instead of this to anyone who hasn't read any other Wilber.
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Nice idea, but...
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I'm not sure who this book is intended for. It is exactly what it claims to be: a critique on postmodernism. If you're looking for a novel that integrates Wilber's philosophy on life, you'll probably be bored by "Boomeritis", which is more like extracts from Wilber's other work with bits of a story line pieced in here and there (as an element of the critique on postmodernism, agreed, but...). The vast majority of the book is dedicated to the lectures, which tend to get very repetitive, especially if you're familiar with Wilber's other works like A Theory of Everything, SES, and Integral Psychology. But if you're looking for an introduction to Wilber's work, you're probably better off reading A Theory of Everything and A Brief History of Everything. But I guess if you love postmodernist satire, you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll find it tough to get all the way to the end. Which is a pity, because the last 15 pages or so are the best part of the "novel".
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A novel with a theory
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This is a novel with a theory. Here is the theory: "...the novel itself, to be truly postmodern, would have to criticise postmodernism. But in order to do that, the novel would have to exemplify everything that it criticized... make sure a main character is named after you… the novel would have to be about Theory, Theory, Theory, Theory... all the characters would have to be flat and two-dimensional." (324-325)
This is a novel with a theory. The theory of Spiral Dynamics, developed by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan from the researches of Clare Graves, is explained in great detail through the device of the novel's hero attending a series of controversial and exciting lectures.
This is a novel with a theory. The theory is that as humanity developed up the spiral of social evolution (as described in the Beck & Cowan work) it reached, at a certain point, the green meme. (Each of the levels in the Spiral Dynamics model is given a colour to make it more memorable and less divisive.) And then something went wrong. The green meme divided into two. The one branch represented normal development and would lead on to the next stage. The other branch represented a narcissistic and stuck variation on the theme, which led to serious consequences: this is what the author calls Boomeritis.
This is a novel with a theory. The theory is that the next stage of social evolution up the spiral will bring society into the yellow meme, which is characterised, among other things, by second tier consciousness. All the previous memes (beige, purple, red, blue and orange levels of consciousness) were limited to first tier thinking, which means that they all thought they were the only correct way of seeing the world. They were all limited in that way, by seeing others as wrong. They were also limited by a flatland approach which saw every person as on the same level, instead of seeing that many different levels of consciousness were involved. So second tier consciousness is what we are all heading towards, and it means seeing all the levels as not only existing but necessary.
This is a novel with a theory. The theory is that the end of social evolution is to reach the third tier, which is union with the Absolute. However, this takes time and is some way off.
As well as theory, there are two speculations of the hero of the novel, who is a computer expert working with artificial intelligence. The first is that human beings might soon be able to live for 200,000 years, and therefore advance to third tier in one lifetime. The second is that artificial intelligence might soon be able to produce fully self-conscious robots, variously called Bots and AI's, and that these might have to go through the same evolutionary sequence as human beings, from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric.
It seems clear that this is not like other novels. It reminds me a little of a book by Francis Sedlak I once saw, where the hero is walking in the woods, and meets a wise man. He says to the wise man: "What is philosophy all about?" And the rest of the book is the wise man telling him the answer. It is not really a story, in the sense of being about believable people who change and develop, and it is not really a treatise, in that the author stands behind what he is saying and gives evidence for all his statements. But it does make you think, and there are some striking pieces within it. There is a sharp critique of constructivism, a stirring attack on political correctness, another stirring attack on the new paradigm, and a wicked section on the California Institute of Idiopathic Sophists. It would be hard to believe in flatland after reading this book.
But in spite of the peculiarities of this book, it actually contains an original and deep analysis of society as it is now. It forces us to see many things in a different light. A lot of the common prejudices and taken-for-granted attitudes in our usual circles are so severely questioned as to be hard to hold on to. Anyone who wants a mental spring-clean would do well to read this book.
John Rowan 10 August, 2002
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