Updated July 2024 When I first adapted a version of this text (The Holocene Catastrophe) for my blog seven years ago, I was reading about the US government pulling out of the Paris climate accord. …
Because we are adapted to stability, our social systems are fundamentally conservative
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humans changed very rapidly […], to an almost universally dense, highly politically centralized, constantly warring collection of sedentary agricultural communities by 5000 years ago
I could just keep quoting. The whole thing is very readable and I encourage everyone to check it out. This concept of “algorithmic” (adaptable) vs “essentialist” (stable, adapted) tradition systems is really interesting.
I have little idea of what that could actually look like, other than imagining hunter-gatherers, but in the future. It’s fascinating to think about though.
PS
Okay you should definitely read it yourself, but here’s just two more quotes that pair especially well imo:
[That fact that we] see environmental change as such a deadly challenge says a lot about us.
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we will have to learn how to let each other move without war
…
I could just keep quoting. The whole thing is very readable and I encourage everyone to check it out. This concept of “algorithmic” (adaptable) vs “essentialist” (stable, adapted) tradition systems is really interesting.
I have little idea of what that could actually look like, other than imagining hunter-gatherers, but in the future. It’s fascinating to think about though.
PS
Okay you should definitely read it yourself, but here’s just two more quotes that pair especially well imo:
…