About the online version of the book

The following material is from the penultimate draft of The Ascent of Humanity. A few proofreading comments and footnotes haven’t been incorporated, but overall, the content is 99% congruent with the print version of the book now available on Amazon.com. I have put the entire text on line because I believe it is important for these ideas to circulate as widely as possible in the present time of crisis. In the book, I write of a coming shift from a profit-taking economy to a gift economy, from an economy of “how can I take the most?” to “how can I best give of my gifts?” This future, in which the anxiety of “making a living” no longer drives us, will arise out of the transformation in the human sense of self that is gathering today. But it is not only a future. We can live it now too. It is in this spirit that I offer you The Ascent of Humanity on line. The cover price of the 600-page print edition is $25. I leave it to you to decide what is a fair price for this online edition, and you are of course also welcome to read it for free. On the voluntary payment page linked below I explain a bit more about why I am not making people pay for this work. The planet is returning to the spirit of the Gift, and I am pleased to join in that turning. Voluntary payment