The Oil Drum

165 comments on DrumBeat: May 17, 2008

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InJapan on May 17, 2008 - 9:38am

Over on blogginheads.tv, John Horgan speaks with Thomas Homer-Dixon, on topics often discussed here. Some of you may find it of interest (there are references to Diamond and Tainter):

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/11143

Enjoy.

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Darwinian on May 17, 2008 - 1:44pm

Thanks for the link InJapan. It was a great interview. I had been thinking about buying Homer-Dixon's book "The Upside of Down" for some time but this Bloggingheads episode persuaded me to do so. I went to Amazon.com and was reading the reviews when I saw this:

The key question in this book is raised in the very middle: "Why don't we face reality?" A major reason is that we are groping in a fog to learn what that reality is. Homer-Dixon likens our society to a driver careering along a country road in a dense fog. We can barely see what's ahead, but we're somehow confident that no mishap will befall us. We've gotten this far safely.

"Why don't we face reality?" Well hell, if Homer-Dixon can shed some light on that question then I must read the book. That's when I clicked and bought the book.

Ron Patterson

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mlr on May 17, 2008 - 2:40pm

I happen to have a copy sitting at my feet right now and I highly recommend it (why exactly I have it on the floor next to the computer, I'm not so sure). One interesting thing is that there is about 200 pages of endnotes in it that initially left me feeling sort of ripped off, but are very good reading in themselves. He goes through explanations of climate change, peak oil, and EROEI that are nothing new to TOD readers, but he also provides a very interesting take on Roman decline.

I've also got a copy of "The Ingenuity Gap" that I've been reading here and there. It's quite good, but the awful jacket cover and the author photo on the rear flap have been barriers to my reading (he looks like a Sears catalogue "cool dad" model).

While I'm recommending books, I also recently read "Technopoly" by Neil Postman (1989 or so) which was not TOO bad. The book has some fairly serious problems, but I think it provides a thought-provoking look at the effects of technology (including writing, statistics and polls, in addition to the obvious computers and such). I wouldn't put it at the top of any list, but it's alright.

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mlr on May 17, 2008 - 3:24pm

With reference to "why don't we face reality?" While 'Tad' does go into this conundrum, I might argue that TOD's own Nate Hagens is about the best source on that topic that I've come across.

[taking bag of money from TOD staff]