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Walter P. Kistler Book Award
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PROCESS | RECIPIENTS 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Eric Chaisson Receives Walter P. Kistler Book Award for 2007
 Dr. Chaisson is the 2007 recipient of the Walter P. Kistler Book Award,
which recognizes authors of science-based books that make important
contributions to the public’s understanding of the factors that
may impact the long-term future of humanity.
In Epic of Evolution,
Eric Chaisson leads the reader through all known forms of evolution,
for all of known time, showing how the arrow of time, over billions
of years, can be neatly partitioned into seven epochs: particle, galactic,
stellar, planetary, chemical, biological, and cultural. “Of all
the known clumps of matter in the Universe,” he
writes, “life-forms are surely the most fascinating … [but]
the arrow of time is not pointing at us.” The next great epoch,
Chaisson writes, will likely be “ethical evolution.”
The Walter P. Kistler Book Award is given annually to authors of science-based
books that significantly increase the knowledge and understanding of
the public regarding subjects that will shape the future of our species.
It includes a cash prize of US$10,000 and a certificate, and is presented
personally by the originator of the award program, Walter Kistler,
benefactor of the Foundation.
 Here is a surprisingly integrated universal history
that people of all cultures can understand and embrace – a big-bang-to-humankind
story about the awe and majesty of twirling galaxies and shining stars,
of buzzing bees and redwood trees, of a Universe that has come to know
itself. But it’s also a story about our human selves – our
origin, our existence, and perhaps our destiny.
As we enter the new
millennium, the scenario of cosmic evolution provides a powerful scientific
worldview, perhaps even a cosmological imperative, to help us become
wise and humane human beings, thus helping us address the many varied
challenges along the future arrow of time.
—Dr. Eric J. Chaisson, Epic of Evolution
Copyright © 1996–2008 Foundation For the Future
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