A combination of travel, work, education and research in Anthropology, human cultures, and Ecology afforded João Pedro Galhano Alves the opportunity to visit the few remaining untouched oases on this planet, where people live in harmony with nature. This was his inspiration for The Artificial Simulacrum World.In The Artificial Simulacrum World, author João Pedro Galhano Alves analyzes the historical benefits of communitary land use systems-one being self-sufficiency and its power to transform lives and create communities. He also discusses how humans evolved to the less than desirable current day position of mass dependence, production, and over-consumption.This in-depth study of land use systems allows any reader to understand why our present ecological and socioeconomic disasters point to a global need for change in social production and consumption systems.Author João Pedro Galhano Alves is a fulltime researcher working on his third Post-doctorate at the Universities of Montpellier III (France) and Nova of Lisbon (Portugal). He resides in Porto, Portugal, but has traveled to over half of the world-from Burma to the U.S., from Norway to South Africa, and from the Polar Regions to the desert lands of the Sahara.