Popular political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon was on CBC Radio One’s The Current this morning discussing his new book, The Upside of Down. His work warns of the potential downfall of Western civilization along the lines of the demise of the Roman Empire. Although this might seem like a very gloomy topic, he makes the key point that out of catastrophe can often come good, and describes, for example, 9/11 as a squandered opportunity to, for example, reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. But I’m getting sidetracked — and this is a journal about technology, after all, not politics. Continue reading →