Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
37th out of 62 books
—
11 voters
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity and the Renewal of Civilization
From the author of the #1 bestselling and Governor General’s Literary Award-winning The Ingenuity Gap – an essential addition to the bookshelf of every thinking person with a stake in our world and our civilization.
This is a groundbreaking, essential book for our times. Thomas Homer-Dixon brings to bear his formidable understanding of the urgent problems that confront our...more
This is a groundbreaking, essential book for our times. Thomas Homer-Dixon brings to bear his formidable understanding of the urgent problems that confront our...more
Hardcover, 448 pages
Published
October 31st 2006
by Knopf Canada
(first published 2006)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
486)
On how forest fires are the right way to see this crisis.
Certain forests only reproduce if there is a fire...but only as long as the fire isn't too big.
The main point is that many problematic situations are coinciding right now which Homer-Dixon calls tectonic stresses. He thinks they will function like multipliers (or like an earthquake effect) and we are likely looking at synchronous failure. According to him it is beyond management but we need to realize that crashes can cause higher levels...more
Certain forests only reproduce if there is a fire...but only as long as the fire isn't too big.
The main point is that many problematic situations are coinciding right now which Homer-Dixon calls tectonic stresses. He thinks they will function like multipliers (or like an earthquake effect) and we are likely looking at synchronous failure. According to him it is beyond management but we need to realize that crashes can cause higher levels...more
3 likes · like · see review
view 1 comment
Unfortunately, my excitement for this book overwhelmed it's execution. The title is promising--Upside of Down--but through and through it's mostly "Down, Down, Down" and a tiny bit of the upside. Basically, we're doomed. Homer-Dixon's proof is solid and convincing of the trouble we're in (though, I imagine, if you, like myself, were intrigued enough to pick up this book, you already think about this pervasive trouble anyway), but the solutions he puts forth (the Upside) are little more than luke...more
I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. Homer-Dixon is writing about the secular end of the world. It is his belief that civilization's own success is the source for a series of unfortunately congruent pressures that threaten to release in a pillar of fire and destruction within the next generations. That it is called the “Upside of Down” seems like marketing, while there are hints of hope that what he perceives to be the root causes can be addressed, it never really comes off as totall...more
Cool look at the decline of the roman empire and the similarities it has with the decline of the American Empire.
------
From Publishers Weekly
With easy-to-understand terminology and a mountain of research, Toronto author Homer-Dixon (The Ingenuity Gap) faces down imminent, unavoidable and catastrophic threats to modern civilization, keeping a wary eye on mankind's chances to adapt. Methodically illustrating how the modern world is doomed to suffer a large-scale breakdown, Homer-Dixon enumerates t...more
------
From Publishers Weekly
With easy-to-understand terminology and a mountain of research, Toronto author Homer-Dixon (The Ingenuity Gap) faces down imminent, unavoidable and catastrophic threats to modern civilization, keeping a wary eye on mankind's chances to adapt. Methodically illustrating how the modern world is doomed to suffer a large-scale breakdown, Homer-Dixon enumerates t...more
Nov 25, 2010
Steve
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
award-winner,
non-fiction
A very interesting analysis on the challenges all societies face. Namely their rise and fall. The analysis boils down to the energy available to a society. When the Roman empire's supply of wheat and other foodstuffs (the energy currency of the times) declined following environmental degradation and migration, they could not maintain their territory. Granted it was not like a battery dying. Those clever Romans used all kinds of taxes and tricks to keep things going. Eventually to no avail. Today...more
A great book about current world events. And about ancient Rome. (Turns out that the Roman Empire fell after an energy crisis!) *Wide* focus.
Prof. Homer-Dixon doesn't want us to be "surprised by surprise"; instead, he wants us talking about the kinds of opportunities that breakdown in our economic, social, and environmental systems will bring. And breakdown will happen sooner rather than later due to the compounding of population, energy, environmental, climate, and economic stresses in our wor...more
Prof. Homer-Dixon doesn't want us to be "surprised by surprise"; instead, he wants us talking about the kinds of opportunities that breakdown in our economic, social, and environmental systems will bring. And breakdown will happen sooner rather than later due to the compounding of population, energy, environmental, climate, and economic stresses in our wor...more
This was a really stimulating read, and very absorbing. It gets four stars only because I felt that the concluding note of optimism wasn't entirely justified by the profound problems he identifies. Overall though, it's a must read for anyone interested in the future of civilisation...
1 like · like · see review
The good:
Well-written and compelling
100 pages of endnotes (I love footnotes, and endnotes are almost as good)
Makes a consistent argument about energy returns on investment being fundamental to society’s functioning, historically and currently
The bad:
I was interested in the UPSIDE of down. I just skimmed most of the book, with its discussion of peak oil and environmental stress and climate change, because I don’t need convincing on those points. I wanted to know what to DO about them. All I got w...more
Well-written and compelling
100 pages of endnotes (I love footnotes, and endnotes are almost as good)
Makes a consistent argument about energy returns on investment being fundamental to society’s functioning, historically and currently
The bad:
I was interested in the UPSIDE of down. I just skimmed most of the book, with its discussion of peak oil and environmental stress and climate change, because I don’t need convincing on those points. I wanted to know what to DO about them. All I got w...more
Guess what, guys? We're all doomed! Just like ancient Rome! Have a good day now!
I particularly enjoyed this point capitalism:
"[Economic] growth makes the new industries and generates the new jobs needed to absorb technologically displaced workers. The American economy, for example, must expand 3 to 5% annually--doubling in size every fifteen to twenty-five years--just to keep unemployment from rising. And to get this growth, our leaders and corporations--operating on the implicit assumption that people can be inculcated with insatiable desires and ever-rising expectations--...more
"[Economic] growth makes the new industries and generates the new jobs needed to absorb technologically displaced workers. The American economy, for example, must expand 3 to 5% annually--doubling in size every fifteen to twenty-five years--just to keep unemployment from rising. And to get this growth, our leaders and corporations--operating on the implicit assumption that people can be inculcated with insatiable desires and ever-rising expectations--...more
This is a grand book. The explanation for why there's a "down" fills more pages than the details of the "upside," but at this point, I think that's still a necessary evil.
I have interviewed the author twice for the C-Realm Podcast, once before reading the book and once after. You can find those interviews here:
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/e...
and here:
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/e...
I have interviewed the author twice for the C-Realm Podcast, once before reading the book and once after. You can find those interviews here:
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/e...
and here:
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/e...
If you are interested in the globalization phenomenon, including environmental, economic and phsychological aspects, this books offers some great food for thought. I was particularly interested in the author's insights into the causes of society's widespread denial - the "why don't we get real" chapters of the book. Given the sobering topic and situation analysis, I was surprised and relieved that the book ultimately ends with a message of hope.
This book was extremely repetitive and I felt as though little was actualy said. Granted, it was full of interesting facts and the author had a good point to make about our society lacking resilience and about our needing to make some major social changes in order to deal with the global problems with which we are faced. However, this should have been an essay, not a 300 page book.
May 21, 2009
Adrian
added it
U of T professor hits another home run. Just as absorbing, thought provoking, scary and necessary reading as 'The Ingenuity Gap'. H-D is convinced the world is heading for a major breakdown as a result of the combination of the end of oil and global warming. The chapter on the philosophy of perpetual growth ought to be understood by every politician.
I highly recommend this book. As the title suggests, when things are looking bleak there is a positive, just we need to find it. The chapter called Catagenisis on how forest fires help the environment, and yet most of California sits on a powder keg of dead material (and lately being proven with so many fires) was the most memorable impression.
This book lays out that the greatest issues effecting our generation right now are. It is factual, practical, and inspirational. The greatest issues that face the world are our generation's to fix. This provides great clarity into what needs to be done and how creative problem solving will be how this is accomplished.
The availability of cheap energy has fundamentally transformed our global society. The political complexity introduced by that transformation is something the Romans never had to face. How is our situation different? How is it the same? This book goes a long way towards answering those important questions.
Very interesting subject matter, a little heavy on the math and formulas though, and sometimes the sheer amount of information is overwhelming
Homer-Dixon applies his impressive knowledge of the history of civilizations, complexity theory, energy systems, economics and ecology to the considerable problems of our modern world and comes up with a suprisingly readable book. An unblinking look at the precipice towards which our modern world is headed and, remarkably, the opportunities we have ahead of us for transformation. If only enough of us harness the wisdom that is available and care deeply enough to apply it... Current affairs sudde...more
One has to view the book within the time it was written. If I was reviewing this book the year it was published I would have given it a 5 star review. However, it is still an important read for anyone who wishes to understand and survive (let alone thrive) in the world during the coming decades.
Enjoy this as much as Ingenuity Gap
I loved this book because it really made me think. It was at times a hard read so what I ended up doing was keeping track of all the words I didn't know and writing them down so that I could look them up later. By the time I finished the book I had about five pages of words and three pages of referenced pionts in time and theorys mentioned throughout the book! I would recommend this book for someone who want's a challenge.
48/308 I just can't do these social science non-fictions that try to incorporate quantitative tools that just seem so far stretched and inappropriate. I keep on thinking, error bars must be huge, but of course they don't even consider them. After awhile, I just can't stand reading them anymore. But then again, I read only 15%, so it might get better...
We made a short film inspired by this book - check it out! http://www.movingstories.tv/the-upsid...
I've heard a couple of interviews with Thomas Homer-Dixon and have been quite impressed. He elucidates complicated ideas very clearly and succinctly. Am 50 pages into this and it's really engaging so far.
Rome couldn't make it in the long run. The US is on the same path, great historical comparisons made in this piece. A number of key insights that our governments truely need to heed.
"...exuberant experimentation is essential to social resillience."
this book dovetails well with 7 life lessons of chaos, deep economy, Ishmael, and many others.
this book dovetails well with 7 life lessons of chaos, deep economy, Ishmael, and many others.
World's Smallest Book Group review of The Upside of Down:
http://omaried.wordpress.com/2008/06/...
http://omaried.wordpress.com/2008/06/...
Mar 28, 2008
mj
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who want a lite introduction to collapsology
I am fascinated by this topic, but aside from original research into how much energy went into the building of the coliseum, there isn't much new here.
Essential reading for anyone who gives a f**k about where we are now and where we could end up pretty soon...unless we act.
Read this book.
Read this book.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
