Rebecca D. Costa

Futurist and Evolutionary Thinker Rebecca Costa
Shares Her Distinctive Vision in

THE WATCHMAN’S RATTLE:
A New Way to Understand Complexity, Collapse and Correction

A Lead Title Coming in 2010 from Vanguard Press

NEW YORK, NY – November 2, 2009 – Rebecca Costa is an evolutionary thinker, futurist, and sought-after speaker whose unique expertise is to spot and explain emerging developments in relationship to human evolution, global markets, and new technologies. She is a welcomed guest on panels whose topics range from economic trends and pop culture, to education and environmental policy. A new voice in the mold of Malcolm Gladwell and Alvin Toffler, who
has conducted wide-ranging conversations with scientists Dr. Richard Dawkins, Nobel Laureate Dr. Charles Townes, and Harvard professor Dr. E.O. Wilson, Costa has been signed by Vanguard Press to deliver one of its lead titles for next year. Her first book, THE WATCHMAN’S RATTLE: A New Way to Understand Complexity, Collapse and Correction, will be published in fall 2010 by Vanguard, a member of the Perseus Book Group.

“Rebecca Costa is known for her keen ability to distill fascinating insights into challenging issues. In The Watchman’s Rattle, she reveals a game-changing message regarding our ability to thrive in the complex world we have created,” said David Steinberger, CEO of the Perseus Book Group.

Roger Cooper, Vice President and Publisher of Vanguard Press, who acquired the book, noted, “Rebecca’s manuscript was extraordinarily provocative and simulating, and I was intrigued immediately by her bold, fresh concept. She has shared her compelling vision in an absorbing and personal style that will appeal to a wide range of readers. There is no question that the book will foster intense and healthy discourse and controversy. It is most appropriate that The
Watchman’s Rattle is a lead title for Vanguard Press, and we’re proud to publish a significant new contributor to the important discussions of our time.” Vanguard Press attracts a broad range of bestselling fiction and nonfiction; authors acquired by Vanguard include Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, Erin Brockovich, Nevada Barr, and Vincent Bugliosi. The book was agented jointly by Arthur Klebanoff of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and David Nelson of Waterside Productions.

In The Watchman’s Rattle, Rebecca Costa clearly posits that the escalating complexity of our personal lives, technological capabilities, and government policies have led to conditions—worldwide recession, global warming, pandemic viruses—that have outpaced our ability to manage them. “When complexity races ahead of the brain’s ability to understand it, we become caught in a global gridlock, unable to fix our most challenging and most dangerous problems. We pass them on from generation to generation as they worsen,” Costa comments. “I examined
advanced civilizations that had reached this cognitive gridlock—the Mayans, Romans, the Ming Dynasty, Byzantine Empire—and it seems that there is a pattern. In every society, we find that certain belief systems overtook the pursuit of knowledge and fact as a means to solve complex problems. As an example, the Mayans increasingly turned to human sacrifice rather than manmade water conservation systems to address severe drought conditions. When that begins
happening, collapse is not far behind.”

What’s next for us? After identifying and articulating this dynamic in The Watchman’s Rattle, Costa offers an opportunity to address it. She reveals scientific evidence that the human brain can be retrained to comprehend, analyze, and resolve massively complex problems. “We’re now able to observe a new form of problem-solving that’s ideally suited to large, dynamic problems. Neuroscientists refer to this process as ‘insight.’” According to Costa, in addition to analytic leftbrain
problem-solving and the creative synthesis used by the right side of the brain, insight has the capability to instantly organize and discern highly multifaceted, chaotic problems. We can give ourselves brain tune-ups, cultivate “insight-on-demand,” and make a significant impact on the seemingly intractable challenges we face today.

A speaker and panel member at the prestigious Renaissance Weekend conference series, Rebecca Costa joins distinguished CEOs, Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, artists, scientists, and innovators from across America and several nations to address public policy and personal concerns. She is equally articulate before large audiences at West Coast Green, a national conference exploring innovations in building green, and select gatherings of
top scientists at Harvard Club. With a proven track record of introducing new concepts and technologies, Costa is a former CEO and founder of Silicon Valley start-up, Dazai Advertising, Inc., (sold to J. Walter Thompson in 1997), whose clients have included Apple Computer, Applied Materials, Oracle Corporation, 3M, Amdahl, United TeleCom and General Electric Corporation. Raised in Tokyo, Japan, Costa lived during the Vietnam conflict in Vientiane, Laos. She attributes her natural ability to spot global patterns to a cross-cultural education and upbringing. She graduated from The University of California, Santa Barbara, with a BA in Social Sciences and earned an MBA from Santa Clara University. Rebecca Costa lives on the central coast of California. Additional information can be found at www.rebeccadcosta.com.

About the Perseus Books Group
The Perseus Books Group is an independent company committed to enabling independent publishers to reach their potential whether those publishers are Perseus-owned, joint ventures or owned by third parties. Named Publishers Weekly 2007 Publisher of the Year, its member publishing programs include Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Basic Civitas, Da Capo Press, Da Capo Lifelong Books, Running Press, Seal Press, Vanguard Press and Westview Press, as well as
partnerships with PublicAffairs and with Nation Books. Through Consortium, Perseus Distribution and Publishers Group West, the Perseus Books Group is also the leading provider of sales, marketing and distribution services to independent publishers. For more information, visit www.perseusbooks.com.