New information technologies-including email, the web, and computerized blast-faxes and phone calls-have fundamentally changed the landscape of political competition in modern democracies. They've done so in three ways: by dramatically boosting the access of individuals and special interests to politically… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
hen the price of carbon reaches $100 a tonne, then it will become an economically viable business proposition to start taking COâ‚‚ out of… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“As ingenuity gaps widen the gulfs of wealth and power among us, we need imagination, metaphor and empathy more than ever, to help us remember each other’s essential humanity. I believe this will be the central challenge of the coming century—one that will shape everything else about who we are and what we become. Anatol Rapoport, a pioneering mathematical psychologist… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
Our marvelous new information technologies boost our power and opportunities for political engagement, but they can also disempower us by contributing to extreme political mobilization that sometimes overwhelms our institutions. These institutions were designed for rural societies operation at a tiny fraction of today's speed and with a citizenry vastly less capable that today's. It's unclear how they will change… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
“Conventional economics is the dominant intellectual rationalization of today’s world order. As we’ve overextended the growth phase of our global adaptive cycle, this rationalization has become relentlessly more complex and rigid and progressively less tenable. Breakdown will, all at once, discredit this rationalization and create intellectual space for new ideas to flourish. But this space will be brutally competitive. We… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
“As I looked over this curious document, I was particularly struck by a band of text across the bottom. It bore the title “Paperwork Reduction Act Notice” and read: The time needed to complete and file this form will vary depending on individual circumstances. The estimated average time is: The text then cheerfully concluded with a note that if I… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
“We can see how our world is, in many ways, becoming more complex, fast-paced, and unpredictable. As a result, the problems we face are getting more complicated as well, and (as in my thought experiment), we need longer and more elaborate sets of instructions for technologies and institutions that can effectively solve them. Or, to put it in terms of… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
“Today’s overwhelming volume and variety of information makes it possible—by selecting and connecting data points carefully—to paint practically any picture of the world and make it seem accurate. So the pictures we paint are often more a reflection of our deepest personal orientation, especially of our basic optimism or pessimism, than of empirical evidence.28 All the same, amidst the welter… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share
“Writing and repairing software generally takes far more time and is far more expensive than initially anticipated. “Every feature that is added and every… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“The result is a dangerous lag between the natural sciences and the social sciences. The natural sciences and the technologies they spawn carry us… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“We might be excused our ignorance in this case, because ocean-atmosphere systems are, after all, almost inconceivably complex. Less easy to excuse is our… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“To support an adequate standard of living, humankind still needs huge quantities of wood and wood products, from planking and beams and fibreboard to… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
Bitumen is junk energy. A joule, or unit of energy, invested in extracting and processing bitumen returns only four to six joules in the… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
