8 June 2019 | New Scientist | 31Don’t miss
VisitLeonardo da Vinci:
A mind in motion at the
British Library in London
explores Leonardo da
Vinci’s fascination with
all forms of movement,
from rivers to shadows.ListenSir Roger Jowell
Memorial Lecture
2019 sees social
scientist Alissa Goodman
and economist David
Laws visit City, University
of London to deliver their
latest research on social
inequality, at 7:30pm
BST on 13 June.WatchMen in Black:
International, out on
14 June in the UK, pairs
Marvel sparring partners
Chris Hemsworth and
Tessa Thompson in the
first Men In Black movie
for seven years. Can a
new set of suits protect
Earth from the scum
of the universe?
SONYPICTURE
S/SIR^ ROGER
JO
WELL
MEMORIAL^ LECTURE/BRITISHLIBRARYWhen it comes to solving
global problems, polymath
Jared Diamond prefers
hard talk to high techSo how do we deal with our very
complex, non-linear world?
There needs to be much more
frank conversation. We need
to try everything possible – in
dealing with nuclear weapons,
for instance – to encourage
conversations, not just between
leaders, but between all levels
of government. If the US and
Russia are having conversations
all the way down the bureaucratic
chain, then presidents and prime
ministers are far less likely to
overreact to an erroneous
early-warning message.
systems and complexity theory
and AI solve everything? Forget it.Even if humanity makes it, the
world will still be harder to live
in and we’re all going to need a
scientific infrastructure.
Compared to ten years ago, we’re
already negotiating a trickier
world. Rich countries are not
going to be secure until standards
of living are more equal around
the world. One of the big factors
making poor countries poor is
public health. Tropical countries
are dealing with the burden of
AIDS, as well as malaria and other
tropical diseases, yet there is
much more research devoted
to temperate zone diseases than
to tropical ones because the rich
countries are in the temperate
zone. In this globalised world, poor
tropical countries are the breeding
place for epidemics that can
spread globally. It’s in everyone’s
interest to deal with this.Do Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse
and Upheaval form a trilogy?
No, every one of my books has
arisen from what I was interested
in at that moment. The way I
develop my books is to teach the
material to my undergraduates
at UCLA. From the looks on their
faces I can see what they find
interesting, and whether I am
explaining it clearly. People often
ask if I began Upheaval after the
Brexit vote and Trump’s election.
Actually I began the book in 2013
when Trump and Brexit weren’t
on the horizon. It just turned out
my book is appearing at a terrible
time. Isn’t that lucky? ❚But in the end, isn’t it like that bit in
the film The Martian when the lead
character says he has to science the
shit out of a problem?
In psychotherapy, there’s
something called a resistance
mechanism: something you
invoke in order to avoid dealing
with a problem. A common
resistance mechanism in dealing
with world problems is to say, “We
need the technology and we don’t
yet have the technology.” Rubbish.
The technology we have today is
sufficient to solve the world’s
problems. Will highly complexTake a deeper dive
Watch more of our exclusive interview
newscientist.com/jared-diamond