"Humanity’s superior intelligence has led us into a self-reinforcing trap of endless economic growth. Thanks to the author’s engaging style, the book is a pleasure to read, though its subject is grave and touches every one of us."
Keski-Uusimaa
Whale in a Glass Bowl
Currently only available in Finnish
Humans can be immensely smart. Yet we overuse the resources of the Earth in many stupid ways. Thanks to our biological wiring, knowledge on looming destruction does not translate into action. What provides solace and solutions is this: we are not alone in it.
Information makes the world go around, both the biological and the cultural – genetic data programs cells, tradition programs cultures, and information most appealing gets passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to the next. But the type of knowledge that is good for an individual needn’t be so for the species or the planet, leaving the ways life makes sense far less logical than we like to believe.
Whale in a Glass Bowl (Valas lasimaljassa) shows how similar (and sometimes downright silly) information strategies betray humans, brown trout and marsupial quolls alike. Effectively, we end up like a whale in an aquarium, trapped despite our big brains. Yet, if we start using our intelligence for understanding the animal in us and tweak our economies, stories and incentives to fit its biological predilections, we may find out our aquarium is more like a frail glass bowl – easy to shatter, easy to escape – and discover smarter ways towards sustainability.