I agree with this. To get out of this local trap we are going to need something revolutionary. This is not something you can plow money into, it will come, if indeed it ever comes, from left field. My bet is there is a new 'frame' to be found somewhere out in the land of mathematical abstraction. I think to solve this one we are going to have to get right down to the nitty gritty, where does complexity come from, how specifically does structure emerge from non structure? How can we design such systems?
It's true you couldn't plow money into such a project. But I always wondered why, when confronted with a problem like this, you couldn't hire one smart organizers who hire forty dispersed teams who'd each follow a different lead. And hire another ten teams who'd be tasked with following and integrating the work of the forty teams (numbers arbitrary but you get the picture).
I suppose that's how grants are supposed to work already but it seems these mostly degenerated to all following the intellectual trend with the most currency.
