{"id":63517,"date":"2022-09-17T06:31:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T11:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63517"},"modified":"2022-09-17T06:31:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T11:31:14","slug":"5-reasons-not-to-predict-the-end-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=63517","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Not to Predict the End of the\u00a0World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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5 Reasons Not to Predict the End of the\u00a0World<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n
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\u201cEveryone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Haruki Murakami<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So you want to talk about the end of the world without sounding like a crank?<\/p>\n

Rule #1 should be: Don\u2019t predict when it will happen.<\/p>\n

<\/span>A lot of the writing on this site has to do with\u00a0the collapse of civilization<\/a>\u00a0(and\u00a0what that means<\/a>). Following Jem Bendell, author of the now (in)famous\u00a0\u201cDeep Adaptation paper\u201d<\/a>, I anticipate \u201cinevitable collapse, probable catastrophe, and possible extinction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, all civilizations collapse. And all species die. Eventually, everything ends. But we are now in a process of acceleration toward that end.\u00a0When will this happen? Who knows. The best answer I have read is \u201csooner rather than later\u201d\u2013which doesn\u2019t really say much.<\/p>\n

I have noticed, though, that a lot of people who are in the Doomer and\u00a0Post-Doom<\/a>\u00a0communities are not so circumspect when it comes to putting a date on the end of the world.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s five reasons why you shouldn\u2019t put a date on the end of the world.<\/p>\n

1. You\u2019re wrong. (Collapse is complex.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The collapse of any civilization is a complex phenomenon. Our global industrial-capitalist civilization is incredibly complex. And it stands to reason that the collapse of that civilization will be complex as well. And that makes predicting it that much harder.<\/p>\n

I think some of the tendency to over-simplify collapse is driven by an unconscious desire for control. We feel out of control in our lives. Contemplating collapse only amplifies this. Imagining a simplified collapse gives us a sense of control. A false sense. The desire for control is a big part of the reason people deny collapse. It shouldn\u2019t be surprising, then, that we would see vestiges of this desire in the doomer and post-doom communities.<\/p>\n

When you talk about collapse as something simple, you\u2019re wrong. Because it\u2019s complex.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 Reasons Not to Predict the End of the\u00a0World \u201cEveryone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come.\u201d \u2014 Haruki Murakami So you want to talk about the end of the world without sounding like a crank? Rule #1 should be: Don\u2019t predict when it will happen. A lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[150,154,12566,33160,32307,2725],"class_list":["post-63517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-survival-2","tag-collapse","tag-complexity","tag-end-of-the-world","tag-john-halstead","tag-post-doom","tag-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63518,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63517\/revisions\/63518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}