The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future? [Paperback]

There are many things I like about The Ingenuity Gap: what appeals to me most is that Homer-Dixon attacks the arrogance of Western society -- the idea that if everybody simply does things like us, they'll be rich, fat, and happy [via a reality of 80 hour work weeks, fast,greasy food and a prescription]. We think that we've got everything worked out, that we know it all. Page by page, this book demolishes that conceit. Each chapter goes after one or two of the assumptions that sustain our pumped-up arrogance and self-delusion. By the time Homer-Dixon finishes, human beings are revealed for what they really are -- incredibly creative creatures who are nonetheless frequently out of their depth, but who spend a great deal of energy convincing themselves that they aren't. [I'm not sure if I should thank him for this insight or just seek chocolate comfort!]

Homer-Dixon writes with real power. He uses personal stories, with his life and overseas experiences as his raw materials. Readers who are comfortable only with academic writing might find these stories self-indulgent, but I find that the style successfully communicates a specific idea or point. Why don't we encourage our dry-as-dust academics and intellectuals to communicate with stories more? Instead of slamming Homer-Dixon for revealing something about himself, we should applaud him for his courage. [Where was Homer-Dixon when I was in university????]

The Ingenuity Gap should be required reading in our schools and universities, and it should be on the bedside table of all our politicians and decision-makers. This one is a must-read.

The application of chaos and non-linearity to social science is probably not new, but Homer-Dixon presents this principle in such a way that it is impossible for the reader not to see it extending its long fingers around the world we live in, a world that, thanks to us, is growing in complexity.

This book serves as a wake-up call for policy-makers around the world who believe that every problem can be solved by technical means only (such as providing Internet connections to starving African children in countries ravaged by wars, jingoism, disease and scarcity of natural resources). Such positivism is misplaced, or misappropriated, Homer-Dixon argues. The widening gap between the rich and the poor of this world is a problem that is in urgent need of being addressed, and as long as we blind ourselves to the oftentimes hard realities of this world, or refuse to look beyond the gates of our rich Western communities, the world will not become a better place, and it could even turn for the worse.

Is this book nothing more than the musings of an unfettered alarmist? Some Westerners might argue that it is. But that is exactly what we can expect from people who spend their whole lives working in an environment that has distanced itself from the natural world (see, for instance, the Vegas chapter of this book). We Westerners have erected towering protective walls around our lives, and knowingly or not we have built the very screens which make it very difficult to see what lies beyond and consequently make it even more difficult for us to find solutions to problems people in less-fortunate countries are facing. Eventually, Homer-Dixon argues, the problems arising in a small country on the other side of the globe could very well embark on the bandwagon of chaos and surprise us with a bang on arrival.

The Ingenuity Gap is, to use a word E. O. Wilson resurrected a few years ago, an example of consilience, in that it draws on research from different fields - scientific, social, etc - to make a point, hoping in the process that it will initiate rapprochement and a fine-tuned orchestration (instead of competitiveness) of human efforts to solve the many difficulties we face today and undoubtedly shall face in the future.

Filled with to-the-point metaphors, interesting people, and written with exemplary lucidity, The Ingenuity Gap is the perfect wake-up call for a world that, awash in information, is slowly giving up on itself.