{"id":770,"date":"2006-09-16T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2006-09-16T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.synapse9.com\/signals\/?p=770"},"modified":"2006-09-16T00:00:49","modified_gmt":"2006-09-16T04:00:49","slug":"what-do-we-do-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/what-do-we-do-now\/","title":{"rendered":"What do we do now?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eric & all,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kitty offered a great question about a historical scholar friend who argues that life is so much better now we shouldn\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n

From my view there are lots of things you could point out to him. \u00a0He probably understands that there\u2019s a limit to any one thing. \u00a0You can also have too much of any \u2018good\u2019 thing. \u00a0An endless explosion of \u2018good\u2019\u00a0is the most sure way of getting you there. \u00a0Everything begins with growth, but things that end with it end in sudden disarray. \u00a0Any of those examples I gave of natural systems that get in trouble with growth essentially do the same thing, keep multiplying what\u2019s \u2018good\u2019 until it overwhelms their internal or external relationships.<\/p>\n

One of the common descriptions of the phenomenon is the \u2018Fairy Tale\u2019 about \u201cThe Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d.\u00a0 Do you see any sign of our having unleashed a run-away phantom producing wealth for us, and now going totally out of control??\u00a0 \u00a0The most stunning thing about this is that the endless multiplication of \u2018wealth\u2019 is the world consensus plan of all the \u2019smart\u2019 people.\u00a0 Clearly nature is throwing us a major curve, turning our ingenuity against us in a profound\u00a0way,\u00a0and we should be both in awe of what\u2019s happening as well as angry and active in questioning everything about it.<\/p>\n

One of the signs that something different is going on today than in prior times is that the incomes of working Americans leveled off 35 years ago,\u00a0with high end incomes continuing to multiply as before.\u00a0 That\u2019s very different from how the economy grew before. \u00a0Note that 1970 is also\u00a0about the time when sensitive people noticed we were beginning to collide with the environmental limits of the earth!\u00a0 Part of my interpretation\u00a0is that some parts of the economy have been more successful in shedding the complications\u00a0of the growth conflicts\u00a0than others.<\/p>\n

The details are complicated partly because any system is complicated, but also because the complications brought on by our growth collisions with\u00a0each other and natural\u00a0limits\u00a0on a small earth\u00a0are a little like turbulence. They\u2019re\u00a0explosions of complication from unexpected places that\u2019ll never be explained. \u00a0Mostly we just call it overload and wave it off, exposing how it erodes our resilience to change. \u00a0That\u2019s part of why we\u2019re so slow to respond to global warming and things.<\/p>\n

The new complications of living on\u00a0earth are still there, though, doing their\u00a0job of slowing the system down, starting from the bottom up it seems\u2026. \u00a0Maybe the top just lifts off and floats away by itself, finding some other universe where its principles actually apply\u2026?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they\u2019d like that, but expect something else will happen.<\/p>\n

What can we do? \u00a0I have a simply defined procedural\u00a0proposal, that also has significant complications. It could be called the \u2018SR feedback switch\u2019.\u00a0 All that means is to\u00a0switch off\u00a0the automatic growth driver of global finance resulting from investors\u00a0\u2019R’einvesting their returns (in businesses obligated to produce more) instead of choosing to \u2018S\u2019pend them. \u00a0Seeing that as a solution\u00a0follows from interpreting the problem as being\u00a0that source of otherwise endless\u00a0exploding feedback of competition.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rather elemental cybernetic steering\u00a0(i.e., meaning no more than \u2018when going too fast ease back on the throttle\u2019) but seems\u00a0beyond \u2018rocket science\u2019 level economics. \u00a0No economist I know of has done anything but laugh at.\u00a0 Another\u00a0proposal is NDR, or \u2018negative discount rate\u2019. \u00a0That\u2019s something proposed by other people, with similar responses from the establishment whose oddly warped thinking is the cause of the problem\u2026<\/p>\n

I also don\u2019t\u00a0understand it well enough to interpret. \u00a0It is supposed to have the same global effect, though.\u00a0 I think the tour bus is way off the map.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to see what happens.<\/p>\n

I hope you could follow this. \u00a0Would be glad to clarify. \u00a0Thanks for your great questions Kitty,<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

To\u00a0Phil, Bruce, Eric, and the group,<\/p>\n

I\u00a0know an individual\u00a0who\u2019s an historical scholar (especially of Medievalism)\u00a0as well as\u00a0much influenced by Carlo Cipolla\u2019s\u00a0lectures and writings\u00a0(pre- and post-industrial society, Berkeley, \u201970s) \u2014 so he\u2019s knowledgeable and articulate about life up to the Industrial Revolution\u00a0but particularly how we\u2019ve benefited from it. And his\u00a0contention is that life is\u00a0so much better<\/em> (i.e., easier) now that\u00a0this\u00a0alone<\/em> renders \u2018doom-ism\u2019 null and\u00a0void. (While to me this is\u00a0pitting\u00a0apples vs. oranges.)<\/p>\n

So when we discuss the\u00a0inability\u00a0of many organisims\u00a0to adapt to\u00a0changing geophysical environments (and their extinction), his argument is that humans\u00a0clearly<\/em>possess this ability, \u201cjust look\u00a0around<\/em> you,\u201d he says with a flourish. His\u00a0contention is that our\u00a0\u2019ingenuity\u2019 \u2014 our\u00a0ability to cool the air around us, avoid the contagion of polio, fly to the great cathedrals of Europe\u2026 \u2014 is the scale of\u00a0our intraplanetary \u2019success\u2019.<\/p>\n

So one very real element we\u2019re dealing with here\u00a0is the\u00a0determination of\u00a0man to see technology, medical science, and\u00a0the luxury of convenience\u00a0as\u00a0a cloak of security against an overpopulating planet \u2014 the tendency to view this scenario as \u201cbut I<\/em> have gained!\u201d Intrinsically, I agree with Eric \u2014 that\u00a0our arrogance can\u2019t (mathematically) go on \u2014 that we\u00a0have<\/em> hit critical mass. The overriding question is: At what point do individuals recognize that we are in a habitat that\u2019s\u00a0bigger<\/em> than our air-conditioners?<\/p>\n

I received an e-mail the other day from a group member, saying \u201c\u2026but what can we\u00a0do<\/em>about it?\u201d \u00a0Ans: Persevere by articulating a platform (and quickly) and getting\u00a0the informed\u00a0word out. I\u00a0watched Eric\u2019s \u201cInfowars\u201d interview \u2013\u00a0and it\u2019s pretty hard to twist his words into\u00a0abject fatalism when he\u00a0talks about\u00a0setting-up his granddaughters\u2019 college funds\u2026 We\u00a0do<\/em> have hope \u2014 all of us. Let\u2019s work on a platform, shall we?<\/p>\n

Kitty<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric & all, Kitty offered a great question about a historical scholar friend who argues that life is so much better now we shouldn\u2019t complain. From my view there are lots of things you could point out to him. \u00a0He probably understands that there\u2019s a limit to any one thing. \u00a0You can also have too … Continue reading What do we do now?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synapse9.com\/signals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}