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When Civilization Outgrows Its Species: The Architecture of a World Too Large for the Humans Who Built It
Paperback
PhilosophyGeneral PsychologyGeneral Sociology
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ISBN10: 1972456180
ISBN13: 9781972456187
Publisher: Reid P. Claxton, Ph.D.
Published: Jul 18 2026
Pages: 414
Weight: 1.21
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781972456187
Publisher: Reid P. Claxton, Ph.D.
Published: Jul 18 2026
Pages: 414
Weight: 1.21
Height: 0.85 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Civilization has become too large for the humans who built it. The world now moves faster than biology can follow-and people feel it every day. Human cognition evolved for small groups, slow change, and local cause-and-effect. Instead, we inhabit global systems that update continuously, interact invisibly, and accelerate without warning. The result is a species-level mismatch: civilization has outgrown its creators. This mismatch produces quietism-the modern retreat into numbness, symbolic politics, emotional exhaustion, and simplified narratives that feel safe but fail to describe reality. People aren't withdrawing because they are weak. They are withdrawing because the world has exceeded the processing power of the human mind. When Civilization Outgrows Its Species explains this transformation with structural clarity and humane precision. It reveals: - Why complexity now outpaces cognition
- How acceleration creates chronic overwhelm
- Why interdependence makes events feel chaotic even when systems are stable
- How quietism became the dominant coping mechanism of the 21st century
- What happens when perception can no longer keep pace with reality
- The emerging human posture capable of navigating overscaled systems This is not a collapse narrative. It is a diagnosis-and a blueprint.
- Why interdependence makes events feel chaotic even when systems are stable
- How quietism became the dominant coping mechanism of the 21st century
- What happens when perception can no longer keep pace with reality
- The emerging human posture capable of navigating overscaled systems This is not a collapse narrative. It is a diagnosis-and a blueprint.
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