I recently read “Seveneves” by Neal Stephenson and just last night finished “The Dark Forest” which is the second book in the “Three Body Problem” trilogy by Cixin Liu. What these books have in common is that they look at a threat to humanity’s existence and probe our responses to it. This literature is timely because we face such a threat in the form of climate change.
The message from the books is clear: only scientific knowledge and staying rational can get humanity past a global threat. This is where I see the biggest danger from Trump. It is full on assault on both science and rational thought. As I have written previously, much of what Trump does is explicitly designed to appeal to what Kahnemann calls System 1 – the rapid fire, jump to conclusions part of our brain that we use effortlessly and which stands in the way of in-depth rational thought, which requires time and effort.
Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. It can only be addressed globally. And it requires massive innovation beyond what we have already accomplished with clean energy. The history of American leadership has largely been one of embracing science starting with the Founding Fathers. Abandoning this tradition, at a time when the world needs it more than ever, is a grave mistake.
