In hunter-gatherer societies, there had to be an awareness of the bigger picture at all times. And now we just live in such an on-demand society that we don't have to think long-term really about anything or have had to in a very long time. So how do we get back to bigger picture thinking? I can't say for sure that it's going to require any kind of evolutionary process. Here's the scenario I'm seeing in it. It's not a pretty one. I think the society is going to collapse. And the survivors will go back to basically hunter- Gatherer or very, very, are you familiar with permaculture, the concept of
George Mobus is Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, Tacoma. His broad academic background saw him conduct research on artificial intelligence, cybernetics and systems science.
George joins me to discuss how systems science is failing to grasp the polycrisis—that the field has been split into silos, leaving most systems scientists without the tools to model the complexity of the emergency we face.
He also explains the neurological limits of individual human wisdom, suggesting the agricultural revolution affected our capacity for abstract thinking, before revealing how humans can work past those limits—collectively.
Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.
© Rachel Donald
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