Rating: 
Summary: A must read
Review: An excellent resource for understanding the challenges we are facing in the 21st century. Homer-Dixon's book is accessible, precise and provides strong recommendations for preparing for the future.
Rating: 
Summary: The Big Wake Up
Review: anyone not taking seriously the information in The Ingenuity Gap
is still asleep. Prof. Homer-Dixon's book is clear, concise and
accurate combined with sensitivity and personal antedotes.
An excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated, but
Review: Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good book. I'd give it 5 stars for social relevance, and 3 stars for 'all things being equal'. But I'm giving it only 2 here because it was so highly recommended by the folks at the bookstore where I bought it. Given the kudos, at the store and inside the cover, I was expecting something really cutting edge, a landmark work of sorts. As for as those books go, this book is truly subpar. My problem is that I learned all this before, before even those times when the 'environment' because trendy in the liberal arts. My undergrad degree was in International Studies, with minors in Economics, Political Science and Sociology, and as such, this book reads more like a review for me than anything else. This would be a great book for somebody at the sophomore level of liberal arts education. It's basically a 200-level read; a bit too far ahead for those who don't know their micros from their macros, yet far too superficial on any given topic to qualify for upper level material. It would be great for those so-called practical types - our business and vocational types - who have never thought much or very deeply about those 'global' issues they hear discussed on CNN daily and Sunday morning whenever a group of DCers gather somewhere in Washington and indulge themselves in what I call 'smart talk'. As one who has lived and breathed this kind of material for many years, I can attest to the fact that this is stuff that a lot of people, most in fact, do need to gain exposure to. I have no strong criticisms of the book; I just think it's overrated. Even the central thesis of an ingenuity gap, (while novel and expounded upon in a book that's basically as long as a novel itself), is hardly original nor especially clever. Anyone close to these subjects invariably asks questions relating the books core: Do we have the ability to deal with the messes we're creating in time to undo the damage we're doing? Do we have the will? Why do I invoke the term 'clever': because anyone close to academia knows that professors are constantly trying to find some new spin or twist to call their own. I'm not accusing the author of that kind of narcissism here - I don't think that's his intention at all, actually - but given the pervasiveness of those kinds of attempts in the world of social theorists, his play on the 'ingenuity gap' concept does beg comparisons. Qualitatively speaking, I find this particular innovation very average. If there was one thing I didn't like about the book it would be its introspective quality, eg, 'Seeing Las Vegas made me think of the world at large.' 'Seeing those buildings at Canary Warf made me think of the world at large.' Some of this would be fine but I thought this was overdone. Then again, it actually suits the mindset of the readers for whom I think this book is most well-suited: college sophomores who are in the process of mind expansion, a process which is largely sustained by intellectual epiphanies. Ultimately though, these criticisms could be rightly regarded as unfair and petty. There's no doubting that this book has immense relevance; it touches on a subject that can hardly be exceeded in terms of overall importance. Perhaps the most relevant aspect of it is the author's sense of realism: without saying it explicitly he leads us to a conclusion which any sane and truly honest person must come to. We're biting off way more than we can chew, and it really might be too late to undo what will turn out to be some major and permanent damage.
Rating:
Summary: CAN WE SAVE MAN FROM EXTINCTION?
Review: I first became acquainted with the extraordinary book "The Ingenuity Gap" by Thomas Homer-Dixon on Pacifica Radio, KPFK Los Angeles, on the "Free Forum" show during a one hour interview with the author. Although I am a voracious reader, I never heard such a cogent argument that the complexity and interactivity of the ecosystem, technological systems, and social and political institutions may prevent us from solving incredibly difficult problems such as global warming, declining potable water sources, declining oil supplies, depletion of our top soil, and of recent concern to us, but not new to many others, home terrorism. Ironically the incredible advance in communication technology according to Homer-Dixon has made it much more difficult for us to combat terrorists as seen for many years with the Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka and more recent years Osama Bin Laden. They can be supplied with money from any part of the world and easily find individuals and countries willing to supply highly sophisticated and deadly arms for the right price. It also allows small special interest groups to thwart government policies for the public good such as environmental policies and helps to keep inappropriate politicians in power. Although "The Ingenuity Gap" has been well written, it must be read slowly to fully absorb the incredible amount of information and concepts contained in Homer-Dixon's enormously important book.
Rating:
Summary: Probably one of the best scholastic works I've ever read
Review: I grabbed this book in a duty free store in Asia and read it all the way back to the US. Needless to say that despite it being an academic book, it was very engrossing and interesting to read. After the first few chapters, I felt both helpless that we're moving at such a pace and have constructed a society where our ingenuity for solving problems is far less than the complexity of the problems and yet optimistic that someone brilliant was able to write a book of this caliber and it was fairly understandable. At times I found it hard to believe I was reading an academic book because it was just a very well written book (and highly researched with dozens of pages of endnotes). I would highly recommend this book to thinkers and public policy students and professionals and to anyone who would appreciate a better understanding of the complexity of the world around them.
Rating: 
Summary: Chicken Little writes a book....
Review: Not a bad book by any means, eloquently writting, well researched, and Dixon often adds a well fit personal perspective and experience to his points. Still there just does not seem to be anything new here, large parts read like a pessimistic first year course in Earth Sciences or Economics, mosty of the "clear cutting is bad" variety. Beyond that, and the admitted "well duh!" premise of the book itself, little else stands out as anything more then speculative musings of the author that do not follow from the evidence he presents to any conclusive degree.
Rating:
Summary: The kind of work society needs
Review: The Ingenuity Gap is a book filled with big ideas that originate from numerous fields of research, and the result is quite stunning. There are so many contentious topics in this 400-page book that every now and then readers are bound to disagree with the author. Notwithstanding, disagreement is the result of conversation, and throughout the book this is the impression I had, that I was having a conversation with a man who has traveled all over the world to find a solution (if one there is) to the growing complexities of the world we live in. The application of chaos and non-linearity to social science is probably not new, but Homer-Dixon presents this principle in such a way that it is impossible for the reader not to see it extending its long fingers around the world we live in, a world that, thanks to us, is growing in complexity. This book serves as a wake-up call for policy-makers around the world who believe that every problem can be solved by technical means only (such as providing Internet connections to starving African children in countries ravaged by wars, jingoism, disease and scarcity of natural resources). Such positivism is misplaced, or misappropriated, Homer-Dixon argues. The widening gap between the rich and the poor of this world is a problem that is in urgent need of being addressed, and as long as we blind ourselves to the oftentimes hard realities of this world, or refuse to look beyond the gates of our rich Western communities, the world will not become a better place, and it could even turn for the worse. Is this book nothing more than the musings of an unfettered alarmist? Some Westerners might argue that it is. But that is exactly what we can expect from people who spend their whole lives working in an environment that has distanced itself from the natural world (see, for instance, the Vegas chapter of this book). We Westerners have erected towering protective walls around our lives, and knowingly or not we have built the very screens which make it very difficult to see what lies beyond and consequently make it even more difficult for us to find solutions to problems people in less-fortunate countries are facing. Eventually, Homer-Dixon argues, the problems arising in a small country on the other side of the globe could very well embark on the bandwagon of chaos and surprise us with a bang on arrival. The Ingenuity Gap is, to use a word E. O. Wilson resurrected a few years ago, an example of consilience, in that it draws on research from different fields - scientific, social, etc - to make a point, hoping in the process that it will initiate rapprochement and a fine-tuned orchestration (instead of competitiveness) of human efforts to solve the many difficulties we face today and undoubtedly shall face in the future. Filled with to-the-point metaphors, interesting people, and written with exemplary lucidity, The Ingenuity Gap is the perfect wake-up call for a world that, awash in information, is slowly giving up on itself.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is easy...
Review: The short answer to Homer-Dixon's question in the subtitle of his book "Can we solve the problems of the future?" is: it depends. INGENUITY GAP is an exploration of a large number of major and increasingly complex problems facing human society. We will require all the ingenuity and political will that we can muster to deal with these successfully. An ingenuity gap is the difference between "the set of instructions" needed to find solutions for specific problems and the capacity of the people, community or state to take the right actions in solving them. As the problems become increasingly multifaceted the development of the matching sets of instructions require more talent and competence. Ingenuity comes in two forms - technical and social. One without the other will not provide us with lasting solutions. Technical solutions might even lead us down a garden path without complementary social ingenuity. It is the latter that guarantees results taking economic, ecological and cultural needs into account. To make his point, Homer-Dixon explores a wide range of examples demonstrating tremendous levels of ingenuity at work all over the world - both technical and social. His contention is that they are available to us if we look properly. H-D, or Tad as he is usually called, takes us on a tour around the planet, using concrete examples to amplify his argument. Obviously, the result is not your usual travelogue and we are not visiting popular vacation spots or tourist attractions. Visiting Vegas, London's Canary Wharf or Patna, India, he believes that a personalized approach facilitates the following of his arguments. While some reviewers have criticized that H-D places himself too much into the story, it nonetheless contributes to the readability of the often exceedingly complicated issues he is addressing. He also conveys his own learning through interviews with some of the foremost scientists in the various fields he covers: from soil scientists to climatologists, from computer science to economy and architecture. His in depth deductions from the wide range of interviews with scientists represent one of the highlights of the book. For example, while exploring the latest research into the human brain as the central point for ingenuity development, Tad takes his questions to one of the world's leading experts on frontal lobes, Donald Stuss. His conversations with Stuss provide fascinating insights in the importance of frontal lobe abilities to process change and integrate experiences and learning. This part of the brain handles our creative and intellectual capabilities. With aging, the ability of the brain to absorb new information lessens while the ability to digest and process complex interrelationships increases. His conclusions are far reaching - changing the way we assess leadership and identify those who are best qualified to meet the challenges of our corporate and administrative hierarchies. After each of these in-depth conversations, H-D reflects on the substance of the dialogue and returns to his overall theme - how can we minimize the ingenuity gap that is widening all the time. Tad groups his book into sections, each addressing different aspects and disciplines from which to review the ingenuity requirements of the modern world. He depicts environmental problems and those related to continuing rapid population growth, which to him is a major challenge for the planet's future. He does not have a lot of patience with the 'economic optimists' or the 'techno-hubris'. He expands on incidences which demonstrate that a single-minded and, in some way, naïve belief that technological advance alone is capable of solving the world's problems will fail. It's impossibleto do justice here to the many strands of global analysis that Homer-Dixon presents the reader with. His many years of research, in particular into environmental scarcity and civil violence allow him to assess ingenuity gaps from many different angles. The criticism that he does not supply adequate answers and does not show a way forward, is oversimplifying what H-D is attempting to achieve. The modern world is at a level of complexity that no one person can comprehend. As a consequence, it will take the ingenuity and political will of many to address the wide range of issues confronting us. In the pursuit of answers, he urges intellectual humility and thinking outside the box. He encourages his readers to take up the challenges, explore them further, and question any simple or easy solutions being offered by political leaders. This is an important reference book to be read more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is easy...
Review: The short answer to Homer-Dixon's question in the subtitle of his book "Can we solve the problems of the future?" is: it depends. INGENUITY GAP is an exploration of a large number of major and increasingly complex problems facing human society. We will require all the ingenuity and political will that we can muster to deal with these successfully. An ingenuity gap is the difference between "the set of instructions" needed to find solutions for specific problems and the capacity of the people, community or state to take the right actions in solving them. As the problems become increasingly multifaceted the development of the matching sets of instructions require more talent and competence. Ingenuity comes in two forms - technical and social. One without the other will not provide us with lasting solutions. Technical solutions might even lead us down a garden path without complementary social ingenuity. It is the latter that guarantees results taking economic, ecological and cultural needs into account. To make his point, Homer-Dixon explores a wide range of examples demonstrating tremendous levels of ingenuity at work all over the world - both technical and social. His contention is that they are available to us if we look properly. H-D, or Tad as he is usually called, takes us on a tour around the planet, using concrete examples to amplify his argument. Obviously, the result is not your usual travelogue and we are not visiting popular vacation spots or tourist attractions. Visiting Vegas, London's Canary Wharf or Patna, India, he believes that a personalized approach facilitates the following of his arguments. While some reviewers have criticized that H-D places himself too much into the story, it nonetheless contributes to the readability of the often exceedingly complicated issues he is addressing. He also conveys his own learning through interviews with some of the foremost scientists in the various fields he covers: from soil scientists to climatologists, from computer science to economy and architecture. His in depth deductions from the wide range of interviews with scientists represent one of the highlights of the book. For example, while exploring the latest research into the human brain as the central point for ingenuity development, Tad takes his questions to one of the world's leading experts on frontal lobes, Donald Stuss. His conversations with Stuss provide fascinating insights in the importance of frontal lobe abilities to process change and integrate experiences and learning. This part of the brain handles our creative and intellectual capabilities. With aging, the ability of the brain to absorb new information lessens while the ability to digest and process complex interrelationships increases. His conclusions are far reaching - changing the way we assess leadership and identify those who are best qualified to meet the challenges of our corporate and administrative hierarchies. After each of these in-depth conversations, H-D reflects on the substance of the dialogue and returns to his overall theme - how can we minimize the ingenuity gap that is widening all the time. Tad groups his book into sections, each addressing different aspects and disciplines from which to review the ingenuity requirements of the modern world. He depicts environmental problems and those related to continuing rapid population growth, which to him is a major challenge for the planet's future. He does not have a lot of patience with the 'economic optimists' or the 'techno-hubris'. He expands on incidences which demonstrate that a single-minded and, in some way, naïve belief that technological advance alone is capable of solving the world's problems will fail. It's impossibleto do justice here to the many strands of global analysis that Homer-Dixon presents the reader with. His many years of research, in particular into environmental scarcity and civil violence allow him to assess ingenuity gaps from many different angles. The criticism that he does not supply adequate answers and does not show a way forward, is oversimplifying what H-D is attempting to achieve. The modern world is at a level of complexity that no one person can comprehend. As a consequence, it will take the ingenuity and political will of many to address the wide range of issues confronting us. In the pursuit of answers, he urges intellectual humility and thinking outside the box. He encourages his readers to take up the challenges, explore them further, and question any simple or easy solutions being offered by political leaders. This is an important reference book to be read more than once.
Rating: 
Summary: All metaphors. No facts
Review: This author is nothing but a medievalist who equates modernity with evil. He has no scientific background (political science is not science) and he is not an economist. In fact he admits: "I have tried to elaborate an INTUITION or FEELING about the future" <emphasis added>. Shirley MacLaine anyone? Everything to him is a metaphor for the human predicament: complexity, high speed, crises, unpredictability, confusion, despair, ad nauseum. For those with an epistemology of reason, there is nothing to be learned from this treatise. For those who are as despondent as the author, well the good news for you guys is that life is utterly hopeless.
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