if you have not heard of howard bloom, go get and read he lucifer principle, it will change everything you  think you know. then read the equally brilliant sequal 'the global brain' because this will rewire your brain as you read it, life becomes a system, creatures that you may never have heard about actually become components in a much bigger picture, it's not environmental, it's ecological. he's the only man on the planet that takes the sum of information and puts it together in a way that is cohesive and elegant and perfectly assessable. for me his books changed me profoundly, and everyone i know has been deeply effected by his work.
howard's books are the types that you read over and over, they are like those russian dolls, always revealing some new information embedded within the text. 
there's a lot of stuff about him on the internet, recently he over came a disability that kept him bedridden and he's out and about now, doing interviews and conferences.
i'll post some stuff on here in the next few weeks as i am busy moving, but so i can't really write much at the moment.
i'll attempt to post in a chronological way, so you can get an insight int this guy but seriously, go read him.
let's start with this one