I adhere to a belief that the biosphere of Earth has a consciousness as manifested in our conception of Gaia. Either we humans live in balance with Gaia or we are erased. When we organize in small tribes we find balance naturally but we live harsh lives physically. As we organize human activities into larger groups with increased complexity to enhance our comfort and longevity we begin to hit episodes of imbalance and correction. In today’s iteration of human organization we have become so complex living out our harmful behavior of endless growth in pursuit of wealth that the consequences via nature’s counteroffensive will be unrelenting until humans either get back in line with the biosphere or we are removed from it. Our fantasy that humanity can leave Earth and live a Star Trek existence in limitless space with limitless resources and limitless possibilities is an outlook that does not adhere to the brutal truth of our existence on Earth as fragile biological entities who happened to evolve with a complex and powerful brain that gets us into a lot of trouble.
Dugald Hind told us: Is this the end of all human civilization full stop? Or, just the end of THIS civilization? if we believe it is the end of all civilization full stop, we will pull out every attempt (in vain) to keep it going. But what if this is just the end of THIS civilization? Can a different civilization rise out of the ruins of this one? As most people continue to dream of "solutions" to our depleting energy and materials return on investment, we should consider which pieces of these will be problems for them in the 30-100 years time frame. And which remnants could be building blocks for the next civilization.
Great essay, thank you. I don’t hold much hope this culture will change. The stories of human centredness run way too deep and we’re close to hitting the iceberg
I appreciate this take as very few are willing to talk about it. As a person raised in America during the 1980s and 1990s the concept of “returning to nature” or “subsistence” or basically what I would summarize as “having to take an active role in my day to day survival”- I’m just not willing to do that. Not for the preservation of humanity- because I don’t see how it can go backwards and still survive.
When I was in college (in the USA) in the late 1990s a general talking point was- not JUST- that each generation does better than their parents- but NOW- each generation will start out making what their parents were making in middle age. (This DID NOT materialize for me but I placed the blame on some defect in me rather than that I had been sold (along with a number of credit cards) a pack of lies.)
I can’t let go of the future being “bigger, better, faster, more-more-more!” or being an abject failure of mankind.
Anna you may be hanging onto the ideal of each generation technologically progressing beyond the previous. However this is now at an end because of human overshoot. You, are not to blame.
The answer to the Fermi Paradox is not that high EROI energy is rare in the universe. The answer is that living organisms selfishly destroy their environment as they develop and multiply. They go extinct in the short time of a few hundred years before being able to harness the energy required to continue their technological progress.
"We are just as obliged to obey the laws of ecology, thermodynamics and the maximum power principle, like any other complex system in the Universe, be them galaxies, stars, a pack of wolves, fungi or yeast cells."
We are "obeying" those laws. And that is what got us to this polycrisis and is why, even after civilisational collapse (if any of us remain), we will cause untold damage again. We are acting like any other species but happen to be much better than any other species at acquiring resources. If our species survives, it will act in exactly the same way, except that it will be much more difficult to access resources without fossil fuels.
I think one of the problems is a lack of unified collective imagining. Where is our shared vision of a better future? I worry that people’s ideas of how a “new civilisation” should look will differ so wildly that this will simply cause instability and in-fighting. Without a collective imagining - and a unifying worldview, ethics, belief system and moral code that holds it all together - we are lost.
The myth of progress indeed. "This process, driven by depletion, has already started to cannibalize the production of every other energy source be it hydro, nuclear or “renewables”. " This is all by design and designed by the satanic ruling caste to fail humanity. They have been cannibalizing OUR human energy for eons and the purpose of the synthetic bioweapon called covid-19 vaccine that contains graphene oxide, cesium 173 and other nanotechnology is to continue vampire OUR human energy by building the wireless body area network (WBAN) to power their technology. People need to detox the transhumanism tech or die. Remember the Matrix Trilogy movies? The Truth is stranger than fiction and the Bible is being fulfilled as we speak. We HUMANS are the Crown of Creation. Amen. God-Source protect and heal Humanity and our Planet. Thank you for your article.
Regarding your last note and the so-called Fermi paradox, I guess you've read JM Greer's "Star's Reach" novel. But for those who haven't done it yet, I can only strongly recommend it.
End of "western military hegemony?" And where are you seeing that exactly? In Ukraine? Where "non-western" Russia just lost half of its military strength?
All problems are resource distribution problems. We have plenty of extracted resources and developed technologies ( except medical ) to provide everyone a decent life, sustainability. The problem is the systems.
You are my favourite blogger. Thank you. The bell of truth. Makes my heart hurt though.
Oh man, it is emotionally unsettling to be living in overshoot
I adhere to a belief that the biosphere of Earth has a consciousness as manifested in our conception of Gaia. Either we humans live in balance with Gaia or we are erased. When we organize in small tribes we find balance naturally but we live harsh lives physically. As we organize human activities into larger groups with increased complexity to enhance our comfort and longevity we begin to hit episodes of imbalance and correction. In today’s iteration of human organization we have become so complex living out our harmful behavior of endless growth in pursuit of wealth that the consequences via nature’s counteroffensive will be unrelenting until humans either get back in line with the biosphere or we are removed from it. Our fantasy that humanity can leave Earth and live a Star Trek existence in limitless space with limitless resources and limitless possibilities is an outlook that does not adhere to the brutal truth of our existence on Earth as fragile biological entities who happened to evolve with a complex and powerful brain that gets us into a lot of trouble.
Another very fine article, thanks so much!
Dugald Hind told us: Is this the end of all human civilization full stop? Or, just the end of THIS civilization? if we believe it is the end of all civilization full stop, we will pull out every attempt (in vain) to keep it going. But what if this is just the end of THIS civilization? Can a different civilization rise out of the ruins of this one? As most people continue to dream of "solutions" to our depleting energy and materials return on investment, we should consider which pieces of these will be problems for them in the 30-100 years time frame. And which remnants could be building blocks for the next civilization.
Can we learn to build better ruins?
Great essay, thank you. I don’t hold much hope this culture will change. The stories of human centredness run way too deep and we’re close to hitting the iceberg
https://open.substack.com/pub/dprian?r=2yucp9&utm_medium=ios
I appreciate this take as very few are willing to talk about it. As a person raised in America during the 1980s and 1990s the concept of “returning to nature” or “subsistence” or basically what I would summarize as “having to take an active role in my day to day survival”- I’m just not willing to do that. Not for the preservation of humanity- because I don’t see how it can go backwards and still survive.
When I was in college (in the USA) in the late 1990s a general talking point was- not JUST- that each generation does better than their parents- but NOW- each generation will start out making what their parents were making in middle age. (This DID NOT materialize for me but I placed the blame on some defect in me rather than that I had been sold (along with a number of credit cards) a pack of lies.)
I can’t let go of the future being “bigger, better, faster, more-more-more!” or being an abject failure of mankind.
Anna you may be hanging onto the ideal of each generation technologically progressing beyond the previous. However this is now at an end because of human overshoot. You, are not to blame.
Gonna be one hell of a hangover after a century long bender!
Thank you B🙏
The answer to the Fermi Paradox is not that high EROI energy is rare in the universe. The answer is that living organisms selfishly destroy their environment as they develop and multiply. They go extinct in the short time of a few hundred years before being able to harness the energy required to continue their technological progress.
"We are just as obliged to obey the laws of ecology, thermodynamics and the maximum power principle, like any other complex system in the Universe, be them galaxies, stars, a pack of wolves, fungi or yeast cells."
We are "obeying" those laws. And that is what got us to this polycrisis and is why, even after civilisational collapse (if any of us remain), we will cause untold damage again. We are acting like any other species but happen to be much better than any other species at acquiring resources. If our species survives, it will act in exactly the same way, except that it will be much more difficult to access resources without fossil fuels.
Yes, it can be said this way too.
And so, as we are the only specie able to really understand the laws of ecology, we ought to disobey them. And still we don't.
We don't because we can't. We're a species. We can only stop acting like a species if we somehow became a different sort of life form.
We've learned a lot about the world and still act as if we've learned nothing. This is because we're a species.
TINA.
I think one of the problems is a lack of unified collective imagining. Where is our shared vision of a better future? I worry that people’s ideas of how a “new civilisation” should look will differ so wildly that this will simply cause instability and in-fighting. Without a collective imagining - and a unifying worldview, ethics, belief system and moral code that holds it all together - we are lost.
The myth of progress indeed. "This process, driven by depletion, has already started to cannibalize the production of every other energy source be it hydro, nuclear or “renewables”. " This is all by design and designed by the satanic ruling caste to fail humanity. They have been cannibalizing OUR human energy for eons and the purpose of the synthetic bioweapon called covid-19 vaccine that contains graphene oxide, cesium 173 and other nanotechnology is to continue vampire OUR human energy by building the wireless body area network (WBAN) to power their technology. People need to detox the transhumanism tech or die. Remember the Matrix Trilogy movies? The Truth is stranger than fiction and the Bible is being fulfilled as we speak. We HUMANS are the Crown of Creation. Amen. God-Source protect and heal Humanity and our Planet. Thank you for your article.
Regarding your last note and the so-called Fermi paradox, I guess you've read JM Greer's "Star's Reach" novel. But for those who haven't done it yet, I can only strongly recommend it.
End of "western military hegemony?" And where are you seeing that exactly? In Ukraine? Where "non-western" Russia just lost half of its military strength?
All problems are resource distribution problems. We have plenty of extracted resources and developed technologies ( except medical ) to provide everyone a decent life, sustainability. The problem is the systems.
--
https://kaiserbasileus.substack.com/p/the-mandate-of-civilization