Greg Twyford wrote:
David Guest wrote:
I have asked some experts but Tony L says I should consult the wisdom
of crowds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds).
Surowiecki and Tony obviously haven't read Jared Diamond's book
'Collapse'.
He clearly argues argues that many societies have collapsed simply
because they couldn't make collective decisions to change how they did
business in the face of environmental and other changes. Sounds
ominously familiar, doesn't it, as I'm sure Tim Flannery would agree.
'Clean coal' the new snake oil? What it doesn't emit CO2 when burnt?
Diamond has some telling examples of societies that survived, such as
Tikopea, because they had a leader who took the hard decision to kill
all their pigs that were ravaging their tiny environment.
Perhaps the wisdom of the crowd was that they didn't kill him.
Surowiecki does say you do need an informed crowd with the ability and
right to say what they think.
David
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