User:Simplicissimo

This is the user page of Daniel Brian O'Leary. My contributions to Wikipedia pages have been in:


 * Progress trap and a related page, lateralization of brain function,


 * T.J. Crow, addition of 2 items under Notable Publications,
 * the pages O'Leary, Rosscarbery and School of Ross.

The Progress Trap contributions and edits have been necessary for several reasons:


 * 1) The original page lacked a succinct definition for progress traps. I added the definition on 10 August 2008, based on the cover text of my book Escaping the progress trap; "the condition in which we find ourselves when science, technology and industry create more problems than they can solve. Often inadvertently." The Wiki definition was later modified to read "the condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems they do not have the resources or political will to solve, for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life. This prevents further progress and sometimes leads to collapse." This Wikipedia definition has been in place since as 2008, and appears on major search engine results. I would add that not enough is known about the behavioral causes to conclude that progress traps are essentially due to lack of political will or "fear of short-term losses".


 * 1) References to related sources were needed, thus I noted the work of Jared Diamond, Danny Miller, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Clive Ponting, Walter Von Krämer, Larry Laudan, Joseph Tainter, Iain McGilchrist among others.


 * 1) There has been the possibility of denial of credit or copyright, in that the specific term "Progress Trap" was originated in 1990 by myself for a Concordia University (Montreal) presentation The Progress Trap - Science, Humanity and Environment, and copyright registered (Canada, Reg. No. 405917) for a planned book The Progress Trap - and how to avoid it in 1991. However another author claimed to have coined the term in 2004. Mentions to this title succession on the Wikipedia page have been vandalized.


 * 1) A reference to the Stanford University (online) Encyclopedia of Philosophy's Progress entry incorrectly serves to ascribe the progress trap concept to Ronald Wright, who referred to it in 2004, more than 14 years after it was first used.
 * 2) The summary of my book Escaping the progress trap has been a valid section of the Wikipedia page, since it goes beyond the usual catalog of issues, offering an investigation of behavioral causes and possible remedies.


 * 1) Further information is available at progresstrap.org and progresstrap.blogspot.com

Edits of the O'Leary page have served to add historical information regarding the family's prominence in the Roscarberry area of South-west Ireland in medieval times, with some genealogical information. The Rosscarbery and School of Ross edits were to reference the ancient scholarship for which this "tuath" was known. It is unfortunately necessary to monitor these and other Irish pages for derogatory material.