Our Human Role
I have been absorbing two books lately.
Both of them talk about how humans solve – or don’t solve -- problems.
The Wizard and the Prophet, written in 2018 by Charles Mann, compares Norman Borlaug’s wizard philosophy that humans can solve all of the problems of the world with technology to William Vogt’s prophet philosophy that if we don’t impose limits on food, water, energy and climate change, and live within those limits, we all will perish.
Borlaug focused on developing wheat varieties that would feed more people. Vogt developed the idea that the limited natural resources of earth can only support so many living beings, whether those beings are birds, bacteria or babies.
Vogt was the first to name these limits carrying capacity.
Carrying capacity is easy for ranchers to understand – our pastures only feed so many cattle and sheep.
Frankly, I scratch my head when wildlife managers in Yellowstone National Park deny what an overpopulation of bison is doing to the land.
Meanwhile, wizardly technology has fed millions of people across the globe with new varieties of wheat and rice, among other foods.
Vogt assumed humans are one cog of biology, like rats or bacteria.
Borlaug assumed humans are separate from other species, with the capacity to analyze and invent.
Charles Mann does not advocate for either the Wizard approach or the Prophet approach.
In fact, he acknowledges that both sides point to the immense problems inherent in the others’ solutions. All of those problems boil down to the cost of implementation and the risk that they won’t work.
Think about small-scale nuclear energy instead of coal, one single wheat species grown across the globe instead of many species with diverse disease resistance and growth characteristics or mandated population limits as examples of solutions with high potential risk of failure.
I’m a bit of both wizard and prophet: Improve carrying capacity with innovative tools, but recognize carrying capacity is limited.
In Viktor Frankl’s 1946 book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl assumes humans are separate from other species, yet will behave as rats or bacteria unless they find meaning to their lives.
Frankl was a psychologist before he spent years in a concentration camp during World War II so he experienced human nature at its depths.
Frankl noted that uncertainty and loss of hope for the future were almost as effective at killing concentration camp inmates as typhus.
Only the gas chamber and starvation were more effective.
Borlaug and Vogt implied that they agreed with Frankl by devoting their lives to solving two of humankind’s greatest uncertainties – chronic hunger and the risk of hunger for all of us in the future.
While Borlaug and Vogt worked on physical solutions, Frankl focused on how our attitude is what keeps us going.
Frankl said the secret is to switch our focus from what we expect from life to what life expects from us.
He said each of us can tolerate any situation, even a concentration camp, if we have a reason to live.
Frankl’s examples included helping our children or publishing a book.
Borlaug and Vogt lived for developing solutions to human hunger and convincing people to live within the limits of our natural resources.
Yet, neither wizards nor prophets address the biggest hurdles to overcome – varied cultural norms, human nature and values.
Frankl attempted to articulate fundamental human nature and values that we all share. He hoped we could use our common characteristics to rise above the scary uncertainty of our collective future.
The power of wizards, prophets and psychologists is that they approach conundrums from different perspectives.
All we have to do is combine the various perspectives to solve our problems.
How hard can it be?