As the world races towards a population in double figure billions, there is a huge pressure on ensuring basic necessities for all – water, food, clean air, and scalable energy sources. Represented principally by Norman Borlaug (the wizard) and William Vogt (the prophet), there are two schools of thought in how humanity could solve this. Scientific and philosophical, it’s not an easy read, but does provide some great perspectives.
Quite a few of the blogs and newsletters I read have made repeated references to this book for a while now. It turned out to be a mixed bag for me. The ‘Life’ section, I enjoyed, though there could be some confirmation bias at play. The ‘Work’ section, though a rendition of the same principles as the earlier section, were reasonably off-putting when applied to a group of people. But it’s still worth a read for insights, framing, and perspectives.
This book links a couple of my favourite subjects – Darwin’s theory of evolution, and determinism. But that’s not the only reason it’s a favourite. In sixteen different domains, the author uses the lens of evolution to show how progress has happened (or not), and the momentum of incremental and emergent change. Read it for perspective, and lesser known facts.
Not an easy read, but persist and you will be rewarded with a fascinating answer to the question that the book’s blurb asks – “why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe?”. While the more famous “Sapiens” tackles how humanity reached its apex position in evolution, it doesn’t try to answer why, say the Spanish conquered South American empires, and not the other way? By looking beyond the proximate answers to that question, the book is able to reveal important insights on evolutionary determinism even within the species.
The book makes a case for reason, science, humanism and progress. You might wonder if it really needs to be made, but 450 pages have been devoted to address the rebuttal for the author’s earlier work on a similar subject! While that is done eloquently, my skepticism arises from the definition of progress and how it manifests in the specific human condition. We are better off when we measure ourselves based on past societal indices, but I am not sure the indices of the future will tell the same story.