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Confronting the Future: Australia and the World: The Next Hundred Years
If man is to survive, a fundamental transformation must take place in Western civilization. The question is, can man control himself and the technology he has created?
It is quite possible that the vital answers to survival in the twenty-first century are not going to come from the great nations that have ruled the world in our time but from the frontier countries which have the advantage of still being in search of their identity and their role. Australia could have a crucial function in determining man's future - the possibility for change is perhaps greater in this country than anywhere else.
In this wise and compassionate book a distinguished and humane scientist argues that there are solutions to man's dilemmas, but if we are to survive the next hundred years we must act now.
It is quite possible that the vital answers to survival in the twenty-first century are not going to come from the great nations that have ruled the world in our time but from the frontier countries which have the advantage of still being in search of their identity and their role. Australia could have a crucial function in determining man's future - the possibility for change is perhaps greater in this country than anywhere else.
In this wise and compassionate book a distinguished and humane scientist argues that there are solutions to man's dilemmas, but if we are to survive the next hundred years we must act now.
360 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1976
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January 14, 2024
Although published nearly 50 years ago (1975), this exceptionally lucid account of our seemingly intractable plunge into self-destruction, coupled to planetary annihilation, is just as fresh now as it was then.
Prescient, is perhaps the best way to put it. Not down to dollars and cents, or strict time estimates, or exact calculations of population growth rates...these can never be estimated perfectly...but prescient with respect to the underlying problems in human society and thinking, and our use of technology, which is powering us on a one-way ticket to global catastrophe.
Does that sound too melodramatic? Perhaps it is - but that is one of the central tenets of the book: That we are each of us, on average, too incapable of grasping the scope of the issues we are increasingly creating in the world, and collectively unable to bring about appropriate change, to prevent the ever-increasing likelihood of wrecking ourselves, and organic life on Earth. We don't seem to have the collective intellectual capacity to steer ourselves, and the world around us, to safety.
One of our chief blind spots is that science and technology will get us out of all the problems that science and technology have got us into in the first place. This isn't to say that science and technology have been bad for humankind - far from it - but that an exclusive continued reliance on them to now save us is simply not enough without very large changes in the way we think about the world: A change in attitude, philosophy of life (all life), the reasons for use of resources + science + technology is needed.
There are many excellent books in this field. This is one of them. It is clearly written, simple and direct, and helpful. No-one will agree perfectly with every premise that Birch elaborates but that doesn't matter...it will stir up in the curious mind many a debate, which can be taken to others...and partly through this, change for the better can happen.
Prescient, is perhaps the best way to put it. Not down to dollars and cents, or strict time estimates, or exact calculations of population growth rates...these can never be estimated perfectly...but prescient with respect to the underlying problems in human society and thinking, and our use of technology, which is powering us on a one-way ticket to global catastrophe.
Does that sound too melodramatic? Perhaps it is - but that is one of the central tenets of the book: That we are each of us, on average, too incapable of grasping the scope of the issues we are increasingly creating in the world, and collectively unable to bring about appropriate change, to prevent the ever-increasing likelihood of wrecking ourselves, and organic life on Earth. We don't seem to have the collective intellectual capacity to steer ourselves, and the world around us, to safety.
One of our chief blind spots is that science and technology will get us out of all the problems that science and technology have got us into in the first place. This isn't to say that science and technology have been bad for humankind - far from it - but that an exclusive continued reliance on them to now save us is simply not enough without very large changes in the way we think about the world: A change in attitude, philosophy of life (all life), the reasons for use of resources + science + technology is needed.
There are many excellent books in this field. This is one of them. It is clearly written, simple and direct, and helpful. No-one will agree perfectly with every premise that Birch elaborates but that doesn't matter...it will stir up in the curious mind many a debate, which can be taken to others...and partly through this, change for the better can happen.
Displaying 1 of 1 review