Rebecca Costa

If sociobiologist Rebecca Costa's upcoming Contemporary Issues Forum presentation is a harbinger, then this year's Contemporary Issues platform promises to be sensational.

The presentation, "Why Can't We Solve Our Problems Anymore? The True Story Behind Gridlock," is at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Hall of Philosophy.

Costa's presentation style reflects her professional life: the confident presence of a radio talk show host and the scholarship of an academic. Saturday afternoon she will present a disconcerting, uncomfortable and provocative theory that there is a genetic explanation for the current political and economic morass.

Her discussion, based on the research that informs her book, The Watchman's Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, posits that the human brain may not be evolved enough to solve the complex problems facing the world.

As she wrote in her book, "The uneven rate of change between the slow evolution of human biology and rapid rate at which societies advance eventually causes progress to come to a standstill."

Costa states that a society paralyzed by gridlock, and which has substituted facts for belief, is set for collapse.

She may be on to something, and if so, what happens next? Though describing the landscape as "bleak," Costa will offer a sanguine solution built on neuroscience research. It is insight that she defines as "a cognitive response to complexity."

Watchman's Rattle is a call to arms as the original watchman's rattle called its community together to meet a challenge or threat. Costa spent six years researching and writing the book.

The book's success — it was chosen by Library Journal as one of 2010's best science and technology books — created popularity for her radio show, "The Costa Report."

Costa graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with a bachelor's degree in the social sciences, and is the former CEO and founder of Dazai Advertising. There, her clients included Apple Inc. and General Electric Co. She has appeared on TED, and last year Costa spoke to many groups, including the Brookings Institution.

The Chautauqua Women's Club sponsors the Contemporary Issues Forum. There will a Q-and-A and a book signing after the program. Watchman's Rattle is available at the Chautauqua Bookstore.