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Tag Archives: technology
Harm/Benefit Analysis
Harm/Benefit Analysis According to Kaczynski, we need to reject organization-dependent technologies that tie us into the technosphere, and cultivate organization-independent ones: Small-scale technology is technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance. Organization-dependent technology is technology that depends on large-scale social organization. We are aware of no significant cases of regression in […]
Peak Oil: Just A Distraction Pt 3
Peak Oil: Just A Distraction Pt 3 … [T]here is no intellectually honest way to believe that the world can continue its near-total reliance on fossil fuels for much more than another decade — a paltry window of opportunity. We also know that we cannot wait until they go into decline before reaching for renewables […]
Pretend to the Bitter End
Pretend to the Bitter End Forecast 2016 There’s really one supreme element of this story that you must keep in view at all times: a society (i.e. an economy + a polity = a political economy) based on debt that will never be paid back is certain to crack up. Its institutions will stop functioning. […]
Questions and Answers
Questions and Answers The really big item in last night’s 60-Minutes newsbreak was that the latest Star Wars movie passed the billion dollar profit gate a week after release. That says just about everything you need to know about our floundering society, including the state of the legacy news media. The cherry on top last week was Elon Musk’s […]
Can We Have Our Climate and Eat It Too?
Can We Have Our Climate and Eat It Too? Download printable PDF version here (PDF, 180 KB) As much as world leaders would like to focus attention on their economies, terrorism, or winning the next election, the heat is rising. Each new release of data on melting glaciers and extreme weather seems more dire than […]
COP 21: There Is a Way to Beat Climate Change
COP 21: There Is a Way to Beat Climate Change The Paris Climate Change Conference might be the turning point in addressing climate change at the international level. The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) is the annual meeting of the 195 nations that make up the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. The […]
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VIII
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VIII This series of blog posts offers a preview to a book which is yet to be written. Since it is turning out to be a rather long series, it seems fair to recap, to give you an idea of where we have been and where we are going. We started […]
The Shadows in the Cave
The Shadows in the Cave I had intended this week’s post to be the next episode in the Retrotopia narrative, chronicling Peter Carr’s meeting with the irrepressible Col. Tom Pappas of the Lakeland Republic Army, and the trip out to Defiance County for the annual drone shoot, but that will have to wait another week. […]
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VII
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VII You have survived your first winter on the land. Congratulations! The worst part of the ordeal is quite possibly over. Gone are whatever addictions and expectations with which you arrived, be they internet access or coffee. Your new world consists of the few people around you, and a huge number […]
The Heresy of Technological Choice
The Heresy of Technological Choice Among the interesting benefits of writing a blog like this, focusing as it does on the end of industrial civilization, are the opportunities it routinely affords for a glimpse at the stranger side of the collective thinking of our time. The last few weeks have been an unusually good source […]
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VI
Shrinking the Technosphere, Part VI Suppose your situation is such that you need to effect a swift change of venue. The circumstances that prompt this relocation can be quite varied, but the common and foreseeable ones are: 1. There is no fresh water where you are. The reservoirs are dry and dusty, the artesian wells […]
Why The Status Quo Is Doomed, Part 1
Why The Status Quo Is Doomed, Part 1 The current world-system is as doomed as the Titanic. We’re like the passengers on the Titanic 10 minutes after the mighty ship struck the iceberg: there is virtually no evidence to those on deck or those snug in their warm cabins that everything they reckoned was safe and secure was […]
Charles Hugh Smith: Fixing The Way We Work
Charles Hugh Smith: Fixing The Way We Work Closing the wealth gap with meaningful work Charles Hugh Smith returns to the podcast this week to discuss the theme of his new book A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All. Automation and artificial intelligence are changing the landscape of work. Tens of millions […]
Former BlackBerry Chief on TPP: ‘We’ve Been Outfoxed’
Former BlackBerry Chief on TPP: ‘We’ve Been Outfoxed’ Jim Balsillie says treaty could cost Canada billions and become our worst-ever policy move. Canada’s innovation sector could suffer billions in losses if the Trans-Pacific Partnership is ratified, warns Jim Balsillie, former co-chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. Jim Balsillie warns that provisions tucked into […]
How Technology Kills Democracy
How Technology Kills Democracy In shutting down whistleblowing and investigative journalism on national security issues, the U.S. government can use its technology to determine who is speaking to whom and then use that metadata as evidence of leaks, a chilling new reality is that endangers democracy, writes Norman Solomon. Of all the excuses ladled out for […]
