Arthur Koestler wrote novels but more memorably non fiction. His 'Darkness at noon' is the most famous of his novels, but I would remember him for his non fiction trilogy ; The Sleepwalkers, The Act of Creation and The ghost in the machine. The fist one speaks about the non liniarity of scientific discoveries; such as that the heliocentric view of the world preceded the actual by about a century and a half and was left forgotten until Copernicus' theory was accepted lately.
The Act of creation intertwines evolution with human advancement and a whole lot of subjects in between. The ghost in the machine speaks about the delusional streak in the human mind where the hierarchical control of the new brain and the old brain are muddled leading to the psychotic streak in human history. He even considers it an evolutionary mistake to have a neo cortex that many times cannot override the limbic system which is the old brain. He also suggests that mankind should develop drugs to correct this mistake and administer them in the same way public water supply is dosed with iodine in certain iodine deficient countries.
Koestler himself was given to mental imbalances but I believe he has not been given his due among the intellectuals judging by the low citation elsewhere. I went all the way to Calcutta to purchase the three books.
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