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Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXLVIII–What Do Previous Experiments in Societal Complexity Suggest About ‘Managing’ Our Future
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXLVIII–What Do Previous Experiments in Societal Complexity Suggest About ‘Managing’ Our Future September 1, 2023 (original posting date) Mexico (1988). Photo by author. What Do Previous Experiments in Societal Complexity Suggest About ‘Managing’ Our Future Viewing ‘degrowth’ through my archaeology/anthropology lens (and primarily via archaeologist Joseph Tainter’s thesis laid out in The […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXXXV–Collapse Now To Avoid the Rush: The Long Emergency
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXXXV–Collapse Now To Avoid the Rush: The Long Emergency (Original posting date: June 6, 2023) Mexico (1988). Photo by author. Collapse Now To Avoid the Rush: The Long Emergency Today’s Contemplation has been prompted by yet another conversation I have had with a person who prefers not to believe the stories […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXXV–Hydrocarbons And The Maximum Power Principle: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXXV–Hydrocarbons And The Maximum Power Principle: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (Original posting date: Apr 22, 2023) Mexico (1988). Photo by author. Hydrocarbons And The Maximum Power Principle: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Today’s Contemplation is a sharing of the response by a Facebook Friend, Schuyler Hupp, whose occasional commentary on […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXCIII—Societal Collapse, Abrupt Climate Events, and the Role of Resilience
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXCIII—Societal Collapse, Abrupt Climate Events, and the Role of Resilience Tulum, Mexico. (1986) Photo by author. This Contemplation comments upon and summarises two short archaeology articles on societal collapse. The first raises the increasing evidence of abrupt climate events being a precipitating factor in societal collapse over the past dozen millennia. […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXCII–Sorry, folks, but ‘renewables’ are NOT going to save humanity or the planet.
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXCII–Sorry, folks, but ‘renewables’ are NOT going to save humanity or the planet. Tulum, Mexico. (1986) Photo by author. In a truly stereotypical Canadian way, I begin with an apology to those who might disagree with or be affronted by what I am about to argue… I’m sorry, but non-renewable, renewable […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXC–Beyond Collapse: Climate Change and Causality During the Middle Holocene Climatic Transition
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CXC–Beyond Collapse: Climate Change and Causality During the Middle Holocene Climatic Transition Tulum, Mexico. (1986) Photo by author. This Contemplation comments upon and summarises a paper that considers prehistorical periods of rapid climatic transition and societal-level responses to the resulting environmental changes. I thought it interesting to review this research article […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVIX–Problem Solving: Complexity, History, Sustainability
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVIX–Problem Solving: Complexity, History, Sustainability Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author. This Contemplation shares my thoughts on and a summary of an article by archaeologist Joseph Tainter that discusses societal problem solving’s complexity, history, and prospects for sustaining a society. It follows nicely from the four-part series I just completed regarding […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVIII–Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 4
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVIII–Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 4 Knossos, Greece (1988). Photo by author. This Contemplation follows from Part 1 (Website; Medium; Substack), 2 (Website; Medium; Substack), and 3 (Website; Medium; Substack) that was prompted by the devastation brought to the southeastern United States by way […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVII–Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 3
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVII– Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 3 Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author. This Contemplation follows from Part 1 (Website; Medium; Substack) and 2 (Website; Medium; Substack) that was prompted by the devastation brought to the southeastern United States by way of Hurricane Helene. […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVI– Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 2
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXVI–Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 2 Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author. This Contemplation follows from Part 1 (Website; Medium; Substack) that was prompted by the devastation brought to the southeastern United States by way of Hurricane Helene. This recent natural disaster (followed closely […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXV– Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 1
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXV– Collapse = Prolonged Period of Diminishing Returns + Significant Stress Surge(s), Part 1 This is a relatively long Contemplation that I am going to break into several parts and was prompted by the horrific situation that continues to unfold across a number of U.S. states hammered by Hurricane Helene (See […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXIV– ‘Renewables’: The Great ‘Solution’ (NOT)
Knossos, Crete (1988). Photo by author. ‘Renewables’: The Great ‘Solution’ (NOT) I’ve been very, very slowly reading a paper by archaeologist Joseph Tainter (Problem Solving: Complexity, History, Sustainability Population and Environment, Sep., 2000, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 3-41) that I will comment upon and summarise in a few weeks. In the meantime, I thought […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXIII–Complexity and Sustainability
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXIII–Complexity and Sustainability I believe that in many ways the past is a prologue to our future. Every experiment our species has attempted in the development of complex societies (from small to large ones) has eventually ‘failed’ to sustain the systems that make them complex and simplification/decline/collapse has followed. Regardless of […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXII–Tech ‘Solutions’ Are Us
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXII–Tech ‘Solutions’ Are Us Pompeii, Italy (1984). Photo by author. Tech ‘Solutions’ Are Us I wanted to share another one of those conversations I have been involved in. It is not unlike many I see occur (and sometimes get involved in) when someone posts definitive support for the pursuit of complex […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXI–The Politics of Dancing: The politicians are now dj’s…
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLXXXI Tulum, Mexico (1986). Photo by author. The Politics of Dancing: The politicians are now dj’s… It seems nowadays we’re always trapped in the silly season of election campaigning. Perhaps my memory is foggy but where it used to be a short window of inane proclamations and ever-grander promises (that never […]
