Why are people so slow to take action on climate-change? Why is there such a disconnect between scientists and artists? What is science for? What will it take to make people change their habits? Aren't we supposed to make the most of nature's bounty? Shouldn't we put left-brain people in charge? Why aren't scientists more creative? How come politicians can say scientists are wrong?

These questions are on the minds of many as we face unprecedented environmental challenges - the same issues arise when we investigate progress traps. This is the condition in which we find ourselves when human ingenuity, in pursuing progress, inadvertently introduces problems that it does not have the resources to solve, preventing further progress. Environmental degradation, followed by social decline, is a key example and provides the starting point for this study. Jared Diamond (Collapse, Guns, Germs and Steel), describes the oft-repeated collapse of formerly brilliant societies as a "baffling phenomenon."

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The classic case is Easter Island, which became uninhabitable after all trees were cut down for transporting stone monuments, but other examples, such as Seymour Cray’s doomed Control Data Corp. or the impractical medieval Church, show the same characteristic: development that excludes solutions to problems that arise from development. Man-made climate-change may be the ultimate illustration of a phenomenon that is baffling due to the absence of a vital factor in rigidly overspecialized societies. That factor is natural creativity – essential to all problem-solving.

The author of Escaping the progress trap finds that individuals and societies can become irremediably committed to exclusive forms of technocratic rationalism. The work of neuroscientists who investigate cerebral specialization shows how this comes about and provides support for the view that mental "division of labor" is not always a good thing.

The same findings indicate that the optimal method for avoiding the progress trap may be to ensure, through education and cultural vitality, that individuals and cultures do not become overwhelmingly technocratic. In fact this is common sense, but having it spelled out in scientific terms could be the only way to influence policymakers.

Others who have written on the subject include novelist/historian Ronald Wright in "A Short History of Progress" and Prof. Tadeusz W. Patzek, Professor of Geoengineering at Berkeley, who has posted a web archive (2008, 2007) of articles and comments on the progress trap phenomenon.

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Progresstrap.org is a companion site to the book Escaping the Progress Trap by Daniel B. O'Leary
coming soon - electronic version