Mar 20 2012: I agree with Paul Gilding's view simply because he has laid out the data and all the trajectories (economics, resource extraction, consumption, long term trends, etc) point to the same outcome. I fear that Peter Diamandis's view is one based on hope (and perhaps more than just a little splash of denialism).
I should say that I have read Paul Gilding's book and I haven't read Peter's however from his presentation it seems to me he's not looking at the broader picture and the mega-trends - he's focused on the more inspiring case studies and examples. We do need to draw hope from somewhere and to be frank Gilding's belief that we will rise up out of the ashes (and parrallels to WWII) is less convincing than his thesis that the Great Disruption is imminent. But hope based on denial of the scale of the problem at hand is, as Gilding says dangerous.
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A comment on Conversation: Clean technology, while a huge opportunity, will not go to scale in time to prevent a global economic and social crisis.
I should say that I have read Paul Gilding's book and I haven't read Peter's however from his presentation it seems to me he's not looking at the broader picture and the mega-trends - he's focused on the more inspiring case studies and examples. We do need to draw hope from somewhere and to be frank Gilding's belief that we will rise up out of the ashes (and parrallels to WWII) is less convincing than his thesis that the Great Disruption is imminent. But hope based on denial of the scale of the problem at hand is, as Gilding says dangerous.