BOOK REVIEW: Rebecca Costa's 'The Watchman's Rattle' Gives New Hope for Those Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life On Earth
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
I'd just about given up hope in my search for signs of intelligent life on Earth -- let alone the Universe -- when two events gave me hope: The successful extraction of 33 miners from almost half a mile under the surface of the desert of northern Chile. and finishing reading Rebecca D. Costa's "The Watchman's Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction" (Vanguard Press, 384 pages, notes, bibliography, index, $26.95).
Actually, I should clarify the latter statement: I read "The Watchman's Rattle" for the first time. It's the kind of book you'll want to keep and read over and over. You'll end up, as I did, underlining and annotating your copy as you discover "aha!" moments. In fact, this is one of the most important books I've read all year and I recommend it for anyone who wants to get an introductory course in the discipline of sociobiology that was pioneered by Edward O. Wilson, who contributed the foreward to "The Watchman's Rattle."
The rescue of the miners is a graphic and stirring illustration of the application of many of the concepts Costa describes in her book, including going to foreign sources, the U.S. (for the NASA-designed rescue capsule), Germany (for the durable wire rope that lowered and hoisted the capsule), etc. to solve a problem. The success of the rescue -- the antithesis of silo thinking (see below) -- depended on thinking way outside the box. The rescuers rose to the challenge and -- with luck and planning on their side -- accomplished the mission.
One of the essential messages of Costas' book is to look beyond "memes" -- widely held beliefs, conventional wisdom or behaviors -- and to challenge the five "supermemes" that defeat humans even before they engage the problem. Costas says supermemes encompass "any belief, thought, or behavior that becomes so pervasive, so stubbornly embedded, that it contaminates or suppresses all other beliefs and behaviors in a society."
What are the five supermemes?
1) Irrational opposition (pages 67-86)
2) The personalization of blame (pages 87-109)
3) Counterfeit correlation (pages 111- 128)
4) Silo thinking (pages 129-145)
5) Extreme economics (pages 147-178)
I'm listing the page numbers because it's important -- vital, even -- that these five supermemes be understood and absorbed. It's a case of knowing your enemy. Read those five chapters over and over again, and read the chapters preceeding and following the five, too. Material contained in the seven chapters may be in the next pop quiz! (Before ending up in journalism, I considered a career in academe).
Irrational opposition occurs "when the act of rejecting, criticizing, suppressing, ignoring, misrepresenting, marginalizing and resisting rational solutions becomes the accepted norm," Costa says. She cites the case of Wag Dodge, a firefighter who discovered a major lifesaving concept while he was fighting a major wildfire: "Imagine for a moment if Dodge has dismissed his revelation that lighting a smaller fire around him would save him from a more dangerous one. Imagine if Darwin had abandoned the notion of evolution simply because he could not prove the existence of genes. Imagine if Einstein's theory of relativity had been cast aside because it wasn't consistent with accepted Newtonian physics."
One example Costa uses for personalization of blame, the second supermeme, is the demonization of the Big Three auto executives who flew in their private planes to Washington, DC in 2008, to ask Congress for billions of dollars of federal funds to restructure their businesses --- a move that has turned out to be a success, the author notes (as did Pulitzer Prize-winning auto writer Dan Neil on Bill Maher's Friday night, Oct. 15 HBO show "Real Time"). "With news that they had flown in private planes...every politician, political commentator, talk show host, reporter, and citizen suddenly objected to helping rich CEOs who don't fly commercial like the rest of us." Costa adds that the subsequent firing of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner confirms the truth of the saying of American business icon Robert Half: "The search for someone to blame is always successful."
The third supermeme, counterfeit correlation, is called, in the author's shorthand, "Clavinism" after the know-it-all postman Cliff Clavin on the popular TV show "Cheers." Cliff Clavin always prefaced the trivia that he mistook for reliable research with the statement: "It's a little known fact that...." Costa says that in the 21st century "we have not only perfected counterfeit correlation, but we have fallen under its spell."
The fourth supermeme is silo thinking, "compartmentalizing thinking and behaviors that prohibit the collaboration needed to address highly complex problems." Silos exist everywhere, Costa says: the CIA doesn't talk to the FBI; physics professors don't set foot in the economics departments of universities; Republicans don't talk to Democrats; defendants don't talk to prosecutors, etc., etc. "And we wonder," Costa states, "why society is gridlocked and broad, complex, systemic problems continue to worsen."
The fifth and final supermeme, extreme economics, "occurs when simple principles in business, such as risk/reward and profit/loss, become the litmus test for determining the value of people and priorities, initiatives and institutions," says Costa. Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway scooter, is one of the visionaries Costa cites in her chapter on extreme economics. In 2008 Kamen's company announced a small water purifying system, called the Slingshot, that produces "10 gallons of clean water an hour on 500 watts of electricity" -- about the amount of electricity needed to power one string of Christmas tree lights for an hour. Kamen says the system can be fueled by methane gas produced by cow manure, a readily available commodity in the developing world, where potable water is a critical need.
Another example Costa cites -- in the chapter after the one on extreme economics -- is the concept of microloans, developed by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for perfecting and popularizing microfinance.
Yunus began his experiment in microfinance in 1974, when he loaned to a group of 47 impoverished people the equivalent of $27, out of his personal savings, to buy materials for their baskets. The women basketmakers established self-sustaining businesses and repaid Yunus in full, with interest. The success of his Grameen ("Village") Bank, established in 1983, led to the creation of thousand of microlending organizations around the world. To date, more than 97 percent of Grameen Bank's loans to the poor have been repaid on time and with interest, demolishing the commonly held belief that poor people are bad credit risks.
Costa believes that the mounting complexity of a problem can outpace the brain's ability to absorb and address it. With compelling evidence, she shows how we tend to quick-fix our problems by addressing the symptoms, instead of finding permanent solutions, leading to dangerous long-term consequences.
Costa presents -- in clear, easy-to-grasp prose -- ideas that can show us how to reverse our own downward spiral. Citing cutting-edge research, she reveals how the human brain can spontaneously call upon a powerful cognitive tool -- insight -- to overcome the negative stereotypes inherent in five supermemes. If we don't, we may suffer the fate of early advanced civilizations, like the Maya of Central America, and become extinct.
About the Author
Rebecca Costa is a former CEO and founder of Silicon Valley start-up, Dazai Advertising, Inc. (sold to J. Walter Thompson in 1997), whose clients have included Apple Computer, Applied Materials, Oracle Corporation, 3M, Amdahl, United TeleCom, and General Electric Corporation. She attributes her natural ability to spot global patterns to a cross-cultural education and upbringing. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a BA in Social Sciences, and earned an MBA from Santa Clara University. She lives on the central coast of California. Her website is www.rebeccacosta.com.