Coast to Coast AM - Jun 16 2012 - Catastrophic Events

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Host: John B. Wells
Guests: John L. Casti, John Gray

Hour 1 - In honor of Father's Day, first hour guest Dr. John Gray celebrated dads, the nobility of

fatherhood, and the importance of their role in the family.

According to Gray, the quest for equality among the sexes has left men devalued in many progressive countries

around the world. "There's a slant pushing men down," he said. Gray presented some research showing how

fathers benefit the family unit, and children in particular. Children are better adjusted when parents stay

together or, if divorced, they have shared time with the father, he revealed, adding that instances of

ADD/ADHD and other challenges are greatly reduced when a father is around. Studies also show that dopamine (a

motivating brain chemical) levels rise in children in the presence of a father, Gray noted. "Children need

that masculine energy—it's a protective energy, which is calm, it's present, it's decisive, it doesn't tend

to get upset about things easily," he continued. Gray encouraged listeners to foster an appreciation of men

and learn to value the wonderful qualities of masculinity.

Hours 2, 3 & 4 - Joining John B. Wells, scientist and mathematician John Casti discussed human-caused

catastrophic scenarios that could quickly bring about the end to our way of life.

According to Casti, these X-events, as he calls them, happen because the systems involved become too complex

for humans to effectively understand and thus susceptible to sudden collapse. People typically will not

voluntarily downsize a complex system, so human nature steps in and does it for us, he added. Yet, there is a

positive side to even the most dire X-event. The highly destructive Fukushima disaster, for instance, has

allowed freedom to restructure many aspects of Japanese life (their political and economic systems), Casti

said. "This kind of creative destruction is, in general, necessary in order to break out of old patterns that

cannot really be changed in some slow, gradual evolutionary fashion; it really takes a revolution and these

X-events are typically the catalyst which bring about that possibility," he explained.

Whenever a society faces a problem the standard response is usually to create a new level of bureaucracy to

address it, Casti continued. As an example, he pointed to the Department of Homeland Security, created

shortly after the 9-11 tragedy to combat terrorism on U.S. soil. It is almost certain that this level of

bureaucracy will still exist when the next problem comes along, Casti suggested. Eventually, all of a

society's resources are used to maintain the current structure and there is not enough left to deal with

other problems that may arise, he noted, pointing to the former Soviet Union as an example. This "complexity

overload" can also occur in the infrastructure that modern society has become dependent on, Casti said,

warning of a possible internet collapse, global financial deflation, food supply breakdown, and destruction

of electronics. A scenario that Casti thinks is the most disconcerting is destabilization of the nuclear

landscape and detonation of a nuclear bomb.