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Tag Archives: complexity
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXXXI–Diminishing Returns On Investments In Complexity
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXXXI December 4, 2022 (original posting date) Chitchen Itza, Mexico. (1986) Photo by author. Diminishing Returns On Investments In Complexity Another very brief contemplation prompted by The Honest Sorcerer’s latest writing regarding our energy predicament. What you have described so well is perhaps the conundrum faced by every complex society throughout history: diminishing […]
How We Fail: Framing the Problem to be Fixable with an Existing Solution
How We Fail: Framing the Problem to be Fixable with an Existing Solution We say we want solutions, but we actually want a specific subset of solutions: those that already meet with our approval. The possibility that none of these pre-approved solutions will actually resolve the problem is rejected because we are wedded to the […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXVII–Those Dangerous Complexities of Human ‘Progress’
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXVII (originally posted September 16, 2022) Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author. Those Dangerous Complexities of Human ‘Progress’ Today’s contemplation is a short reflection (and reiteration) on where I believe human ‘energies’ should be focused as we stumble into an unknowable future in light of an article on the topic that was shared […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXXIV–Energy-Averaging Systems and Complexity: A Recipe For Collapse
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXXIV November 28, 2021 Athens, Greece (1984) Photo by author Energy-Averaging Systems and Complexity: A Recipe For Collapse Supply chain disruptions and the product shortages that result have become a growing concern over the past couple of years and the reasons for these are as varied as the people providing the ‘analysis’. Production […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLVI–Peak Oil, Complexity, Psychology, Magical Thinking, and War
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLVI Mexico (1988). Photo by author. Peak Oil, Complexity, Psychology, Magical Thinking, and War Again, some sharing of my comments and others’ on a couple of recent FB Group posts. First, a post from the Peak Oil Group I am a member of where some great conversations happen. In this particular situation, […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XIX–Fossil Fuels: Contributing to Complexity and Ecological Overshoot
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XIX June 7, 2021 Tulum, Mexico (1986) Photo by author Fossil Fuels: Contributing to Complexity and Ecological Overshoot Andrew Nikiforuk is an author and contributing editor of the online media site The Tyee. He has been writing about the oil and gas industry for close to 20 years. In his most recent […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh VII–Science: It May Not Be All You Think It Is
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh VII Oct 12, 2020 Pompeii, Italy (1993) Photo by author Science: It May Not Be All You Think It Is Ha! It’s poetry in motion Now she’s making love to me The spheres are in commotion The elements in harmony She blinded me with science (She blinded me with science!) And […]
Feedback Loops and Unsustainable Systems
Feedback Loops and Unsustainable Systems Mountains as seen from Tennessee Welcome Center I have brought up feedback loops (both positive and negative) many times in this space. I’ve also brought up unsustainable systems in one way or another in practically every article, since they are endemic in human society and at the root of every predicament. It would be very simple […]
Ramping up wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles can’t solve our energy problem
Ramping up wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles can’t solve our energy problem Many people believe that installing more wind turbines and solar panels and manufacturing more electric vehicles can solve our energy problem, but I don’t agree with them. These devices, plus the batteries, charging stations, transmission lines and many other structures necessary […]
The Simple Story of Civilization
The Simple Story of Civilization The stories we fashion about ourselves are heavily influenced by our short life spans during an age of unprecedented complexity. We humans, it would seem, are unfathomably complicated creatures who defy simple “just-so” characterizations. Animals, or humans tens of thousands of years ago are fair game for simple stories, but […]
Addressing Climate Change Will Not “Save the Planet”
Addressing Climate Change Will Not “Save the Planet” The dismal reality is that green energy will save not the complex web of life on Earth but the particular way of life of one domineering species. A boiler tower surrounded by mirrors at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert, Calif., on Aug. […]
5 Reasons Not to Predict the End of the World
5 Reasons Not to Predict the End of the World “Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.” — Haruki Murakami So you want to talk about the end of the world without sounding like a crank? Rule #1 should be: Don’t predict when it will happen. A lot […]
Phase Shift — Part 1
Phase Shift — Part 1 Loosing polar ice, the Amazon and the fight against a coming recession Image credit: Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash News stories and popular narratives on recent — and not so recent — events like how the economy got broke or why inflation is soaring focus too much on human decisions. As if ‘choices’ leading […]
