Is Constant Innovation Dangerous? See Ancient Rome

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/11/18/Sander_van_der_Leeuw_The_Archaeology_of_Innova...

Archaeologist Sander van der Leeuw discusses the dangers of constant innovation. "Every innovation creates a cascade of new challenges," he says, which shifts a society's focus to short-term thinking. He warns China is currently "addicted to innovation," but praises the bustling nation for its focus on long-term thinking.

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Are we the first civilization to try and innovate our way out of climate change? How have past societies engineered sustainable solutions to a shifting world?

Sander van der Leeuw, Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and External Faculty Member of the Santa Fe Institute, has spent his career studying these questions. During his seminar, van der Leeuw explores this research into the past, as well as its application to our current global predicament. - Long Now Foundation

Sander van der Leeuw is an archaeologist and historian by training. After teaching appointments at Leyden, Amsterdam, Cambridge (UK) and Paris he presently holds the Chair of Anthropology at Arizona State University in the USA. He is an External Faculty Member of the Santa Fe Institute, a Correspondent of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Member of the Institut Universitaire de France.

Stewart Brand is a co-founder and managing director of Global Business Network, founded and runs the GBN Book Club, and is the president of The Long Now Foundation.

Brand is well known for founding, editing and publishing the Whole Earth Catalog (01968-85), which received a National Book Award for the 01972 issue. In 01984, he founded The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), a computer teleconference system for the San Francisco Bay Area. It now has 11,000 active users worldwide and is considered a bellwether of the genre.