subject: Rebecca D. Costa : Gulf Oil Spill [print this page] Rebecca D. Costa : Gulf Oil SpillRebecca D. Costa : Gulf Oil Spill
Gulf Oil Spill
In her much anticipated, game changing book, The Watchman's Rattle due in bookstores October 5th, 2010 Rebecca Costa confronts and explains why we can't fix problems like the Gulf oil spill anymore.
She writes:
"From an evolutionary perspective, social progress moves fast. It only takes weeks to develop the next iteration of a cell phone, law, or mortgage. And major discoveries in science, from the human genome to new fuel cells and galaxies in outer space, are also occurring at a remarkable pace. But our brains the apparatus that must process all this new information evolve over millions of years. So while the world I live in is changing in picoseconds, my brain is struggling to keep up. But what happens if it can't? Can complexity race ahead of the brain's biological capabilities?"
With compelling evidence based upon research into the rise and fall of the Mayan, Khmer and Roman empires, Costa shows how insurmountable complexity causes a civilization to quick-fix problems by focusing on symptoms instead of finding permanent solutions which leads to frightening long-term consequences. Eventually, a society's ability to solve its most threatening problems becomes gridlocked, progress slows, and collapse ensues.
In Costa's view, gridlock in the Gulf is another symptom that the complexity of our most dangerous problems has exceeded the biological capabilities the human brain has evolved to this point. So what can we do? Costa attacks the root cause of gridlock among experts and leaders and offers the first practical antidote to complexity: "When faced with overwhelming complexity we have no choice but to adopt the venture capital model wherein we must throw everything and the kitchen sink at our most threatening problems while accepting an 80 percent failure rate. That's what happens when picking winners from losers is beyond the capability our brains have evolved."
For more information on Costa and The Watchman's Rattle visit www.rebeccacosta.com
