Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "steady-state"

Add these two books:
for exploring the impact of diversity on complexity Scott E. Page's "Diversity and Complexity"
for exploring the saga of the Chacoans and Puebloans as an example of the staying power of efficiency and the role of complexity in the survival of a culture, add David E. Stuart's "Anasazi America."

Completing the Picture--Adding Ecological Economics and steadystate.org imperatives to Complexity Economics

A little late with a big Aha--it's time to put together a mini-Bibliography to review the new economical thinking that could save the future.

Start with a general overview of problems with classical economics, economics as a complex system, and the role of government, leaving the How of solving problems to citizens. Be sure to read The Gardens of Democracy by Eric Liu and Eric Hanauer, Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books, 2011.

For tending the economic garden that has become overgrown, go to steadystate.org and see C.A.S.S.E.'s twelve steps to a no-growth economy--how to get over our obsession with growth and its cause, uncontrolled debt.

For the latter idea and a connection to complex systems, see Gaian Democracies by Roy Madron and John Jopling, Devon UK: Green Books Ltd., Schumacher Society Briefing #9, 2003.

Don't forget to stir into your reading Thomas L. Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 as a reminder that nothing can grow forever.

Related studies are found in Lester R. Brown's Eco-Economy, New York, WW Norton and Co., 2001 and Plan B, 2003.

The moral implications of all this and a scathing critique of classical economics is beautifully covered by Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb Jr. in For The Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment and A Sustainable Future, Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.

Eric D. Beinhocker's The Origin of Wealth, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2006 covers such a critique and tells good stories that define economics as complex, giving us a huge bibliography and lots of useful notes. However, he fails to talk about how an overused planet is impacted, hugely, given the reality of economic complexity, with its tendency to do unpredictable amplification. Remember 2008.

Finally, for an understanding of complexity, first read Per Bak's How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality, New York, Springer-Verlag, 1996, then Thinking In Systems --A Primer by Donella Meadows,VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2008. The newest recommended primers I've found are Deep Simplicity, John Gribbin, New York: Random House, 2004 and Diversity and Complexity, Scott E. Page, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Let's do it.

Come join the event I am running until June 20. A two-book prize for the most thoughtful comments in my two blogs on two issues in The Webs of Varok: 1)Tandra's growing awareness and self-actualization and 2) the steady state as portrayed in The Webs, namely balancing regulation with consensus.
Blogs are here on Goodreads and on http://caryneeper.com/blog.htm
Go to the author's page on archivesofvarok.com to see the latest on Tandra's character development.
Here's the link http://bit.ly/Yfg6V6

Looking forward to hearing from you.

See my review of Brian Czech's "Supply Shock: Economic Growth At the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution" here on Goodreads. The timing again was amazing. His book arrived just in time for me to reference it while doing in-depth editing of the third book in The Archives of Varok, which model the steady state in a fun alternate 21st century setting.
Thanks to ecologist Brian for learning so much about economics and sharing it.

Summary of the Steady State portrayed in award-winning fiction in The Archives of Varok: the requirements outlined by De Villiers focus on not overusing the planet's resources and overseeing a fair distribution of its wealth. Mechanisms include taxation and depletion quotas and policies that encourage a constant sustainable population.
http://archivesofvarok.com/What's New

The series is now up to date. E-books are available for the rewrite of A Place Beyond Man. It is called The View Beyond Earth, and includes a new beginning and corrections in copyediting, as well as updates on how we might actually relate to friendly aliens who live too close to ignore. Start with this one if you like backstory--who are these characters?

The award-winning book The Webs of Varok is the second book in the series. It focuses on issues portrayed on an alien planet--issues that could impact our long-term future. They do not deny our need for facing very tough choices. Falling back on old -isms won't work; we need to recognize the limit to resources.

The Alien Effect is the third book in the series. Like the others, it follows the mixed alien-human family in time, but is a standalone if you don't need extensive backstory. Set on Earth, the family faces some of our most troubling cultural issues.

by Paul Gilding, New York, Bloombury Press, 2011.

Gilding’s thesis is that the bottom line is clear. In 2011 he says that a “...global crisis is no longer avoidable.” To minimize the “...loss, suffering, and conflict...in the coming decades...” we will “bring out the best” in humanity and win the war to avoid catastrophe.

The Great Disruption “...is not just debt, or inequity, or a recession, or corporate influence, or ecological damage. It’s the whole package...beyond incremental reform...We are quite capable of building: an economy that feeds, clothes and houses all. ..fulfills lives [and] treats the planet like it’s the only one we’ve got.”

In reviewing the CO2 problem, Gilding notes that climate change is a symptom of the larger problem, which is our “addiction” to growth—both biologically and in the market place. He notes all the usual clichés and outlines in detail the disruption in our businesses as usual. But when we understand that we must accept our planetary boundaries and the careful regulation that can enhance business ventures, we will gradually transition—through considerable trauma—to a prolonged steady state that enhances our lives.

Gilding is good at reviewing all the objections to sharing and localization, the difficulties with capitalism, communism and complexity. His prediction of the refugee problem we now experience is chilling, as he points out horrific details of the Disruption. When denial is no longer possible, he lands squarely on the obligatory solution, no-growth economics. A Full-Earth Economy (steady state was introduced by Herman Daly in the 1970s and is still presented and developed by the Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy (http://steadystate.org) as the prescription for a pleasant long-term future for Earth and humanity.

"Uncommon Sense--Shortcomings of the Human Mind for Handling Big-Picture, Long-Term Challenges" by Peter Seidel, Steady State Press, Arlington, VA, 2020.

I received this book from CASSE, the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, . It focuses directly on the "root causes of our problems"--climate change, overcrowding of Earth with people, products, and pollutants, and biodiversity loss. The author blames our human inability to deal with the "big Picture"--Earth's "long-term problems."

The author argues that "positive thinking" is not necessary. We need to focus on what we can do to fix the planet we are using up and destroying. He asks why this is so hard?

Seidel suggests that we must realize that we are a part of nature. Where does our food, water, and clothing come from? And how? Earth would need to be 2.8 larger for everyone to live like Europeans. Why is "questioning economic growth taboo? "Continuous population increase and economic growth on a finite planet is impossible." That should be an obvious truism."

We are seeing the beginning in tragic population shifts going on now. The collapse of the Mayan and Easter Island civilizations are early examples of what is beginning on the entire Earth now. We are "losing species 10 to 100 times faster than the average rate of extinction over the last million years, and "that rate is accelerating."

The author helps us focus on specific problems and solutions, like our dependence on electricity. For specific "to dos" please study this small 100 page book.Peter Seidel