Book Review — The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out Of Extinction by Rebecca D. Costa
Every now and then, for a variety of reasons, a book stands out to me as either a major paradigm shift and therefore so important that everyone on earth should read it, or it contains as a such a grand and systemic review of what brings us to our present that everyone on earth should read it. Both type of books are so important to who we are and where we are going that I cannot over stress the effect they have on me. For the first category, books like Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse shine forth. Now I read a lot and it’s a rare book that will show me the world in such a way that, in addition to ringing true, I will have never considered anything close to that viewpoint before. They both had completely new ideas on every page for me. I couldn’t put those two down, and in fact, I start reading Collapse to my son this afternoon.
In the category showing us how we all got to this point, the example that comes most firmly to mind is Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. People may laugh at this choice but I can recall few other books that even approach its ability to show the sheer humanity involved in science. With humor and an irreverent awe, Bryson shows us our world in a level of detail that thrills me. I’ve read this book three times and most strongly recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in a history of science.
Does The Watchman’s Rattle live up to these books? Could it possibly reach the bar set so high by it’s predecessors? Goddamn it! That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out these last few days. Thus far I just don’t know. At times, brilliant, at others, provoking, the book lunges through ideas like mega-churches through money, thrilling me with the scope and grandeur of the work and convincing me of its authenticity. Then I’ll stumble upon one little section, sometimes only a phrase that will cast the rest of it in doubt. Provoking, it is. Truths, both massive and new, are woven throughout.
But is it an accurate vision of our past and future? Well… Beats the hell out of me, and not just because I can’t see the future. It’s more because I can’t see that what she lays out as solutions aren’t just panaceas created out of a hope for humankind to survive. I just don’t know. More research will have to be done. At the very least, this is a book that I will be chewing through for a very long time. That alone should recommend it to many of you.
The Watchman’s Rattle thoroughly discusses the problems facing mankind but not the common problems we are all used to hearing about. Oh sure, climate change, overpopulation and dwindling natural resources are all mentioned, but these are not the root of the problem. According to Costa, the root of humankind’s problems and the reasons so many civilizations have fallen is that they have all reached a “cognitive limit” on what they could figure out. Every civilization reaches a point where the complexity of its troubles becomes too great for merely human brains to figure out. Once a people’s troubles become too complex for our brains using knowledge, they revert to beliefs or faith in what they cannot prove to help them. Any reader of this blog will understand my horror of that.
Is this true? Not being an expert, my opinion here must be taken appropriately, but this rings so true it hurts. As our own world grows in complexity and the problems we face today look too impossibly convoluted to solve, I see many people reverting to belief or faith only because it’s simpler and easier. The world has become so specialized that a mere human could never hope to understand everything even in their specialized field. Therefore, we must increasingly rely on experts and specialists to guide us, but there is growing resistance. The acrimonious debate over climate change is a prime example. Many are no longer willing to turn over complicated science to the experts but demand, without merit, that they can understand it too. But to truly understand it would take years of study that virtually none aren’t willing to put in. So they espouse a belief that it isn’t true and find erratic bits of evidence to support that belief… or just make shit up.
They haven’t expanded their knowledge to encompass the problem. They have dumbed down the problem to fit readily on a neat shelf within their own minds comfortably resting next to similar beliefs about pollution, abortion and God. If it’s too hard to understand the problem just believe you do. It won’t solve anything but will give you some smug satisfaction and superiority over the so-called experts.
In a nut shell, this is the root of the problems in The Watchman’s Rattle. Costa then breaks these down into separate “supermemes” that humanity tends to fall into that support belief over knowledge. I can’t get into the specifics here only because I couldn’t do them justice. Suffice it to say that people often prefer the simpler solution over the right one. And look around. Can anyone really argue with that assessment? Shit no!
It’s not her analysis of the problem that I find difficult. I think she is spot on there, one of the best I’ve read. My trouble lies with her optimism for overcoming the problem. This is very reliant on altering human behavior and cognition through a variety of ways, most of which would be considered speculative to say the least. She finds the most comfort in the studies of “insight”, the brain’s way of unconsciously arriving at conclusions without apparent effort. Now I admit, this area does fascinate me and perhaps we can study and control this mental ability better, but to hold on to it as tightly as she does makes me lose hope in our future rather than gain it. The study of insight is at it very beginning and I think that most of what we could infer here could safely be labeled unproven.
My opinion here is not helped by what I consider the weakest part of the book, that is its reliance on single very controversial demonstrations of how we are missing the boat. These go by with hardly a word of explanation, but raise the hackles on the back of my neck. Events like NASA research into spaced based power systems are brought forth as near perfect solutions to today’s problems that we are missing because of our inability to accept new things. Um… Maybe… Someday. Does she have any idea what it would take to get a system up and running, even a prototype? She falls victim to her own list of human frailties by grandly simplifying an unbelievably complex and unproven system into something to be taken for granted. There are other similar issues. I could have made this book three times as good by simply going through and editing out two pages of speculation as fact.
In all truth Costa’s book holds close to the fine edge between genius and fantasy. I just wish I could better judge which side of that line she is on. I am not into woo. I hate the stuff and my woo detectors are generally pretty effective at sniffing out bullshit, but here, I am just not sure. What do I rate it? Ask me tomorrow and again next week and I’ll likely have different answers for you. For making me think… A ten! For bringing forth an original statement of the problems facing us… a ten!
I wish I could stop there, but alas. The book is very thought provoking, very original. This I can say without a doubt. Is this an accurate roadmap to the future? Sigh! Rating that I’d have to give it somewhere between four and ten. Don’t like my wishy-washy analysis? I don’t either. It frustrates me that I can’t accept it or throw it out. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t some of you read it and we all could discuss what the book really means. At the very least, this book has provoked me to think and think hard, and that makes it worth reading right there.
So someone help me out here and tell me what you think. I need someone to talk to about this.
Oooohh–one I’ve not heard of! Based on your review, I’d love to run right out, but with shipping, you’ll have to wait a week or ten days or so… Still, a read-along (so to speak) would be *really* fun!
I’ve read Diamond’s books, too–and I agree. I couldn’t put Guns, Germs, and Steel down, either. Or Collapse (you’re reading it to your son? *Awesome*! Great Dad Award!).
And Bryson is always hilarious. I *really* enjoyed Short History, too–partly because it was a pretty big genre shift for him, and I thought he pulled it off brilliantly.
I agree with w
Agggh! Curse the iPad with its tendency to submit comments if part of the screen is accidentally touched. Please delete the previous (partial) comment if possible.
I agree with your opinion of Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” and “Guns, Germs and Steel” and Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Almost Everything” (I’d also add his recent “At Home”).
I downloaded the start of “The Watchman’s Rattle” and I must admit I’m not impressed by the argument, that human brains have not evolved enough to cope with complex technology or systems. After-all, Jared Diamond has pointed out that stone-age highlanders have progressed to flying helicopters in less than a single generation. Neuroplasticity should be enough to adapt to anything.
Ithink that the resistance to change is actually due to technology. With the internet, opinions opposing technology (or anything that the internet writer thinks is a bad idea) are easily propogated, and people with similar ideas can seek themselves out on the web to reinforce their opinions.
Yes, we have an ipad too, and though I love the thing, there are a few annoying items I wish I could change.
I not sure I can agree with the human brain’s ability to continue to overcome problems. As society gets more and more complicated, eventually you have to reach some “cognitive limit” where the collective intelligence starts phasing out in search of simpler solutions. As I see society now and our ever present quest to simplify every difficulty down to a useless but easy to understand lump, I cannot but help to agree with her on this. It’s true that our brains have adapted thus far but that is no indication that they will continue to do so.
Like every physical attribute we possess, we can train and use proper diet and stretch beforehand but eventually we simply cannot run any faster. We cannot continue to process addition complications indefinitely.
Look at how as society gets more complicated and changes faster people revert to fundamentalism or astrology or some new age BS. Many of these fast changes I have agreed with and even promoted. Never- the-less, women’s rights, gay rights, civil rights, the sexual revolution along with the slew of tech changes have made many people very uncomfortable. Thinking about things differently hurts and people want to be in a simpler life. As atheists we understand that better than many for many have had to change from belief to atheism. I will be the first to admit that that was not comfortable.
More and more people are retreating. We cannot retreat from our problems. No matter how far we shove our head up our ass they will still be there. one can either solve them or just pretend and isn’t all this woo a big game of pretend.
It’s probably unusual to hear from the author, but this is such a well written and thought-out review, I wanted to drop you a line and thank you for examining the book from multiple perspectives.
The book was an ambitious undertaking. Began as a 500-plus page manuscript, well substantiated but not consumable for mainstream readers. The shorter version gets the point across, but as you rightly point out, may not make the full case. This, and the fact that what we know about how to catch the human brain up to the growing complexity of our circumstances is pathetically little. A revolution in neuroscience will no doubt be the key – but frankly we are only on the cusp of that – which means the evidence is thin, debatable and yet ahead.
I appreciate your in depth analysis. I still make a strong effort to respond to specific questions on my web site http://www.rebeccacosta.com Thank you for stimulating more conversation about the root cause of problems which have now been with us for many generations and which grow worse and more dangerous with time. Thank you for rattling!
Rebecca Costa
The Watchman’s Rattle
Ms. Costa.
Thank you so much for your review of my review. You’re right that doesn’t happen very often and I appreciate it. The scope of your book is amazing and the sheer volume of knowledge imparted by it shames my feeble attempts.
I think you’ve precisely bullseyed the problems we face. Reading your analysis felt like looking at the underside of our civilization and seeing how we really work, and this alone makes your book one of the most important the year. I agree, completely, on the difficulties, but I’m not as sure about the solutions. I see the desperate need of getting the already brilliant minds we presently have on the planet to work together to save us. The cognitive ability is there. The organizational ability isn’t. Through our scientific research and understanding of our universe and the massive efforts we have made towards education and equality, we are cognitively better than any previous civilization. But it’s only when the existing genius works together that we can find our way through this present mine field and that;’s not happening enough.
And as I look at the world today, a world where expertise is derided, a world where fundamentalism makes steady inroads onto the world stage, a world where the belief in magical thinking is touted as the solution to all ills, I despair of us ever finding the unity we will need to break through the impending barriers we face. In our world today the genius of making money has allied itself with the genius for convincing people to believe myth over reality, this to the detriment of all. My mind quakes at the growing number of educated people who are convinced that the Earth is 6000 years old and Science is wrong about most of what it believes. These people hold our greatest scientific minds in contempt and raise the Bible or the Koran as the answer to all problems, and yearly, these people grow in power and influence. I wonder if there is an answer to our problems.
Ms. Costa, you are a visionary and I fervently hope that you have found the path to salvation, some systemic restructuring of our greatest thinkers allowing us the think our way forward. I hope your are right, but I am honestly not sure. We teeter on the edge and we need someone to point out our flaws, someone to show us the way, someone to push us forward.
I am pushing this book on everyone I know. It’s all I can do.
Hmmm. I’m always a bit wary of the ‘it’s all too complicated’ argument. In any realistic sense, it would date to the start of the industrial revolution (Luddites and all that), yet the ‘back to basics’ strand of religion goes back to the times of the Old Testament, at least.
I still maintain that the current apparent rise in the more fundamentalist types of religion is more of a growth in visibility than actual numbers, via the internet, and politically biased 24-hour news, and such. Also I think it stands out more now because there are fewer mainstream believers — we now see the forest because the saplings and undergrowth have withered. (I’ll accept any punishment you like for that horrible mangling of a turn of phrase!)
That said, I’ve added the book to the the Ever Growing Reading List.
Oh, and I’ve finally went ‘n’ got Guns, Germs and Steel.
You will *love* it! And I agree about numbers of fundamentalists–I think they’re mainly just more visible (and *vocal*) now, too.
Oh yeah! I meant to tell you guys–(sorry, totally OT, but REALLY COOL!) here is the link to the live Eagle-Cam. Somebody at the Norfolk (Virginia) Botanical Garden had the brilliant idea to set up a camera in a tree near a Bald Eagle nest. Just click on the play button, connect to the live stream, and watch the eagles (when they’re there, and not out collecting twigs, that is) in their nest! They are simply MAGNIFICENT! They’re going to leave the camera up for months while they lay eggs and hatch and raise chicks, too! It’s 7:20am, Virginia time–and both eagles are there right now! The female is the one that is *slightly* larger, and a deeper, more hooked beak. Have fun!
Sorry–In my excitement, forgot to actually put the *link* in. Here it is:
http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html
Enjoy!
Wow! And wow! And some more wows. I can’t stop watching it.
FYI, if anyone gets a message saying the cam’s unavailable, just refresh the page a couple of times.
Wow…!
Yay! Is that not *totally* cool?! She’s laid a second egg, too! You can see video of both (taken from the web cam) at the site. Most of the time now the female is sitting in the nest (occasionally swapping out with papa). Chicks in about 5 weeks!! And maybe she’ll lay one more egg…(she’s laid 3 eggs both of the last two years and fledged all six eaglets)…
Hey–Daz! I kept trying to get onto your forum the other day, and it just kept loading…and loading… is there something wrong with the server by chance?
Sorry I’m so far behind here but that camera is awesome. I just watched her for the last five or ten minutes. Fascinating! It’s weird how the tree swinging back and forth makes me a tad dizzy.
Glad you could watch! It’s addicting–I got slightly carsick (treesick?), too, when watching while it was really windy. And there are officially THREE eggs!! Which will hatch in 35 days or so… then we get to watch chicks!
(sorry, KK–totally forgot you were doing the other play! And I see you’ve got a post up about it– YAY!)
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