Sign-In
Cart
The Age Of Systems: From Human Cycles to Engineered Worlds
Paperback
Series: The Cycles of Civilization, Book 3
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 29 2026
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.58
Height: 0.41 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
We once lived by dawn and dusk, season and harvest, rest and recovery. Modern civilization still speaks in the language of human life, but increasingly it operates in the language of systems.
In The Age of Systems, Nolan Verran examines what happens when clocks, institutions, markets, metrics, platforms, automation, and artificial intelligence stop serving human rhythms and start replacing them. The result is not just a faster society. It is a different human environment, one that rewards continuity over depth, optimization over meaning, and coordination over wisdom.
This is not a book of technological panic. It is a book of recognition. It asks how modern systems reshape time, identity, attention, embodiment, relationship, and freedom, and why so many people feel efficient yet strangely removed from life itself.
Philosophical, accessible, and urgent, The Age of Systems is for readers who want to understand the deepest transition underway in modern civilization and the human question hidden inside it: can a society built for systems still remain fully human?
Also from
Verran, Nolan
How War Works: Power, Fear, Faith, Money, and the Machinery of Human Conflict
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
Leading When Machines Think: The New Rules of Power, Strategy, and Leadership
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The AI Meeting: How Smart Managers Turn Machine-Generated Noise Into Better Decisions
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The AI Manager: How to Lead Teams, Workflows, and Decisions When Machines Join the Org Chart
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The AI Decision: How Smart Leaders Make Better Calls When Intelligence Gets Cheap
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The Invisible Game: Strategy, Influence, and the Systems That Shape the World
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The Architecture Of Influence: How Power Moves Through Money, Media, Institutions, and Networks
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
The Day The Human Died: How Modern Systems Replaced the Human, and How to Take It Back
Verran, Nolan
Paperback
Also in
General Sociology
I Can't Believe I Did That: The Game That Gives You Points for Sharing Awkward, Awesome, and Unforgettable Memories: Card Games
Nadelberg, David
Katcher, Neil
Other
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America
Schroeder, Jonathan
Borgerson, Janet
Paperback
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
The Destiny of Modern Societies: The Calvinist Predestination of a New Society
Zafirovski, Milan
Paperback
Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race
Soss, Joe
Fording, Richard C.
Schram, Sanford F.
Paperback
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
Kaku, Michio
Hardcover
The Agrarian Seeds of Empire: The Political Economy of Agriculture in Us State Building
Bauerly, Brad
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
Revolution and Its Alternatives: Other Marxisms, Other Empowerments, Other Priorities
Brass, Tom
Paperback
What If?2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
Paperback
How to Be Less Stupid about Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Fleming, Crystal M.
Hardcover
You Have Stept Out of Your Place: A History of Women and Religion in America
Lindley, Susan Hill
Paperback
The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans--And Other Possible Phenomena
Pearl, Mike
Paperback
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets
Kretzmann, John P.
Paperback
Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World
McNeill, J. R.
Paperback
Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry
May, Lary
Paperback
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old
Schiller, Lucy
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter
Tyrangiel, Josh
Hardcover
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Soares, Nate
Hardcover
The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything
Jezer-Morton, Kathryn
Hardcover
Doing Small Things with Great Love: How Everyday Humanitarians Are Changing the World
Eubank, Sharon
Hardcover
American Alt: A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country
Lockhart, Chris
Hardcover
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Hardcover
Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online
Latifi, Fortesa
Hardcover
The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them
Reed, Amy
Mestyanek Young, Daniella
Hardcover
Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War
Katz, Catherine Grace
Hardcover
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paperback
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know
Oster, Emily
Paperback
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Naparstek, Aaron
Goodyear, Sarah
Gordon, Doug
Hardcover
The Tribe and I Have Spoken: The Definitive (Unofficial) Lore and Legacy from the Game's Smartest Surviving Loser
Kavutskiy, Alex
Cesternino, Rob
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Paperback
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Kaba, Mariame
Hayes, Kelly
Paperback
Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)
Johnson, Eleanor
Hardcover
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain
Pakman, David
Hardcover
The Power Broker (Pulitzer Prize Winner): Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Caro, Robert A.
Paperback
Who We Are Becoming Matters: The Courage, Wisdom, and Aloha We Need in a Timeplace of Collapse
Wong, Norma Kaweloku
Paperback
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves
Gilbert, Sophie
Paperback
One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate
Dickson, Ej
Hardcover
Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI
Veliz, Carissa
Hardcover
From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan
Hansen, Suzy
Hardcover
In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis
Mauldin, Laura
Hardcover
Street Smarts: Trust Your Instincts, Outsmart Danger, and Stay Safe in a World That Isn't
Eve, Dannah
Hardcover
Te vas a morir y todavía no has empezado a vivir: 29 principios para vivir mejor (y con más sentido)
Falces, Laura
Moreno Montana, Uli
Paperback
Our Minds Were Always Free: A History of How Black Brilliance Was Exploited--And the Fight to Retake Control
Davis, Lisa E.
Hardcover
How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition: The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan
Price, Catherine
Paperback
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Higginbotham, Adam
Paperback
Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights
Littlefield, Amy
Hardcover
Las Como Hablar para que Los Ninos Escuchen: y Como Escuchar para que los Ninos Hablen
Mazlish, Elaine
Faber, Adele
Paperback
One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, Vol.1
Webb, Whitney Alyse
Paperback
Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind
Zengerle, Jason
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Hardcover
Nostalgic Word Search for Adults and Seniors (Large/Big Print) (Large Print Edition)
Press Books, D&e
Paperback
Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.
Vigliotti, Jonathan
Hardcover