It appears we would agree that technological innovations (problem solving) is the unique human activity on which our hope should be placed for thriving civiliza

It appears we would agree that technological innovations (problem solving) is the unique human activity on which our hope should be placed for thriving civilization and it should be enabled for individuals to pursue their goals. Im aware of most of the individual examples you presented, and the are to the point. Nevertheless, I think I lead us away from the main point with my context setup. My reading of the problem of climate is at odds with the mechanical view of in-animate mater supposedly controlling the stability. I am closer to the ecologists (majority of) which point out that the biosphere stabilizes the climate, therefore CO2 by itself is not at all an issue (if there is biosphere healthy/functional enough to respond -- that is the core of the issue, and it is overlooked in the purely mechanical outlook). For if the biosphere is not properly functional in regulating the water cycle (upon which all the other cycles depend) no amount of technology (at the current and foreseeable future) can cope with. If I was to react to the last point "logic of collective action", by taking a step away to get a larger view, cooperation is not possible (would not be self-organized from independent units/agent) without competition. Cooperation is only to get comparative advantage of a unit in an environment against other such units over physical resource (to be read as a biology statement not political, but it is clear). In a population of units (and groups) there will be variance (diversity is the modern word) - which is a double edged sword (as you point out). However, no biological system can be 100% correlated across its dimensions of operations, it would not survive, could not respond to changes, and dis-function of one units would imply the same for all the rest by definition. So while human mind may think it desirable, I do not think it is natures way (to get rid of trouble-makers, though Im against moralizing nature).