Status: [[Brewing]] #books ## Reference: [Commanding Hope](https://commandinghope.com/), by Thomas Homer-Dixon, Penguin Random-House (2020) >The greatest danger is that we’ll lose faith in our ability to create a positive future, and with it much of our hope. Scarcity of hope could turn out to be the most crippling scarcity of all. #clipping 1. Non-complex resources (copper, oil) vs complex resources (climate, water cycle) 2. Complex resources 1. dynamic 2. can't establish property rights because of connections 3. interconnected to other non-complex and complex resources 4. non-linear, can flip in unpredictable, irreversible ways 3. Scarcities of complex resources limit economic growth 1. #mythoughts if economics is based on the management of scarce resources, then complex goods require it to be updated accordingly 4. Time, per the consensus among physicists, is not fundamentally real; but really a psychological phenomenon. 1. This is an important question: 1. if time is not real, then we have a block universe and the set of futures is fixed 2. if time is real, then the future is open 2. Homer-Dixon cites Lee Smolin to argue that time is real 5. Cites Rachel Beddoe & Robert Costanza "human societies are organized around cohesive sets of worldviews, institutions and technologies (WITs)" and WITs are units of selection in social evolution. 1. If prevailing WITs are not suited to the external environment, they get selected out. 6. Systems of social power sustain dominant WITs 7. Causes of cascading 1. uniformity and connectivity form a positive feedback loop 2. overload 8. Superordinate goals