The Wizard and the Prophet
by Charles C. Mann · first published 2018
85% recommend12% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
History of 20th-century environmentalism and the Green Revolution, told through Borlaug and Vogt. It frames the tech-fix versus conserve debate on population, food and climate, for readers wanting balanced background.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Presents two influential scientists, William Vogt (1902-1968), and Norman Borlaug (1914-2009), whose diametrically opposed views shaped modern understandings about the environment and related public policies.
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…Angela Chen. Really helped me understand my ace friends better. - "Complex PTSD: From surviving to thriving" by Pete Walker. Helped me recover from a lot of trauma that was causing me duress - "The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann. Helped me recover from anxiety disorder caused by climate change. - "The Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy Gallwey. As a former competitive gamer, this really helped me step back…
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗This is fantastic news; for more background on golden rice and the process of making better food, I recommend Charles C. Mann's book The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World. It's an amazing story, though the length of time it's taken to get golden rice from the lab to the market has been horrific.
on “Golden Rice meets food safety standards in three leading regulatory agencies” ↗Anyone thinking about or considering working on these technologies owes it to themselves to read Charles Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet. Whatever you may think of the author's various statements on Peak Oil etc., the book is a worthwhile meditation on two very different approaches to our current crises. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34959327-the-wizard-and-...
on “Carbon Removal Technologies” ↗…immunity to Eurasian viruses. Reading 1491 is similar to the feeling one might have of encountering Chinese or Japanese civilization for the first time. I would also like to plug a third book from Mann: The Wizard and the Prophet. https://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Prophet-Remarkable-Scientists-... It's about two men, the godfathers of the Green Revolution and the modern environmental movement. The first, Borlaug, is a techno-optimist…
on “Native Intelligence” ↗The book "The Wizard and the Prophet" (highly recommended, by Charles Mann) argues that this is essentially a battle between faith in technology to become more efficient and the nature-preserving belief that we need to reduce our footprint.…
on “Carbon removal hype is becoming a dangerous distraction” ↗Nice one - didn't know that. Penicillin is maybe the most famous example? The Wizard and the Prophet (Mann) and How Innovation Works (Ridley) also show how combinations of these types of discoveries (many of them in different fields, being studied for other purposes, etc.) over multi-year periods often…
on “Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm with paper made from bananas” ↗…colonial project of excess population disposal and mercantilism of East India Co. Likewise the green revolution is coincident to US hegemony but the roots are in Borlaug's humanitarian effort in Mexico. The Wizard and the Prophet makes for interesting reading on this. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/34959327-the-wizard-a...
on “World military expenditure passes $2T for first time” ↗"The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C Mann sets up an interesting duality that I think more people should be aware of. Mann describes "Prophets" as people who see a problem and then try to prod people to change their behaviour…
on “Efficient method to capture CO2 from the atmosphere / Univ of Helsinki” ↗For anyone that wants a deeper look Charles C Mann's recent publication The Wizard and the Prophet covers the figures behind over population concerns & modern environmentalism as well as the figures behind the green revolution which played a large role in pushing famine and food insecurity down to…
on “The Population Bomb Has Been Defused” ↗…which could be beneficial: - Borges' Aleph, and his essays (for example Other Inquisitions). He was fascinated about concepts programming is famous for now, he would have loved recursion - Mann's The Wizard And The Prophet. He uses the life of two highly influential scientists (Borlaug and Vogt) as exemplars for two ways of viewing progress, one highly focused on technological progress, one being sceptical of technological…
on “Ask HN: Which non-programming books are a beneficial read for programmers?” ↗The Wizard and the Prophet, which I highly recommend, had a good section on the history of our worries about global warming. As per the article we've understood that increasing atmospheric CO2 would cause global warming for a…
on “A man who linked CO2 to climate change in 1895” ↗For anyone else utterly fascinated with the debates between technological development advocates and lifestyle alteration advocates in response to climate change, I absolutely cannot recommend The Wizard and the Prophet enough. From the author of “1491” fame which is quite popular here on HN—it’s actually interesting I see that book on pre Colombian America recommended more often here on HN than the one on technology…
on “Will technology save us from climate change?” ↗…problems, e.g. massive gains in ag productivity of pesticide treated, fossil fuel fertilized, genetically modified high yielding, mono cropped strains that have already saved a billion. Cannot recommend “The Wizard and the Prophet” enough, a great history of environmentalism in the 20th century and how this split evolved, and it’s not nearly as biased as I am (though still clearly leaning “Wizard” in its text). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34959327-the-wizard-and-...
on “Shortage of air conditioner parts expected this summer” ↗I recommend the book “The Wizard and the Prophet” to the author [1]. It clears up a fundamental confusion in the article that treats Progressives as Wizards when they’re really Prophets. [1] https://www.amazon.ca/Wizard-Prophet-Remarkable-Scientists-T...
on “I Am Not a Progressive” ↗This is the classic “Prophet vs Wizard” dichotomy as laid out in The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles Mann. I highly recommend the book for getting a thorough background on the thoughts of both camps. I really wish it wasn’t always presented as a binary choice. I’m not convinced that we can’t…
on “Tech Won’t Save Us. Shrinking Consumption Will” ↗