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The Watchman?s Rattle

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The Watchman’s Rattle

Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction
ISBN-10: 1593156057
ISBN-13: 9781593156053
Hardcover
$26.95 US · $29.95 CAN
Published: October 2010
Website

About the Book

Why can’t we solve our problems anymore? Why do threats such as the Gulf oil spill, worldwide recession, terrorism, and global warming suddenly seem unstoppable? Are there limits to the kinds of problems humans can solve?

Rebecca Costa confronts—and offers a solution to—these questions in her highly anticipated and game-changing book, The Watchman’s Rattle.

Costa pulls headlines from today’s news to demonstrate how accelerating complexity quickly outpaces the rate at which the human brain can develop new capabilities. With compelling evidence based on research into the rise and fall of the Mayan, Khmer, and Roman empires, Costa shows how the tendency to find a quick fix to problems by focusing on symptoms—instead of searching for permanent solutions—leads to frightening long-term consequences: society’s ability to solve its most challenging, intractable problems becomes gridlocked, progress slows, and collapse ensues.

A provocative new voice in the tradition of thought leaders Thomas Friedman, Jared Diamond, and Malcolm Gladwell, Costa reveals how we can reverse the downward spiral. Part history, part social science, part biology, The Watchman’s Rattle is sure to provoke, engage, and incite change.
Rebecca Costa
About Rebecca Costa
Rebecca Costa is a sociobiologist whose unique expertise is to spot and explain emerging trends in relationship to human evolution, global markets, and new technologies. A frequent speaker at the prestigious Rennaissance Conference, West Coast Green Conference, and major universities, Costa was the former CEO of Silicon Valley start-up, Dazai Advertising, Inc. (sold to J. Walter Thompson in 1997). Costa’s clients included technology giants such as Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle Corporation, 3M, Amdahl, Seibel Systems and General Electric. Raised in Tokyo, Japan, Costa lived during the Vietnam conflict in Vientiane, Laos, where her father worked in covert CIA operations. She attributes her natural ability to spot global patterns to a cross-cultural education and upbringing. She graduated from The University of California with a BA in Social Sciences and earned a master’s degree from Santa Clara University. Rebecca Costa lives on the central coast of California.

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