A post submitted by CGI member ScienceTruth.
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Suzanne Taylor’s Now What ?
cross-posted a post from The George Tsakraklides View
SUE Speaks Jan 16 · Suzanne Taylor’s Now What ?
[ SUE - Searching for Unity in Everything ]
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com
This digs down into causal realities with a brilliance in making its points clear. I'm passing it along so you subscribers are steeped in the 'best of the best' that can seed everyone in dealing with the Now What ? question that my Substack poses.
Why Civilizations Collapse: The Existential Paradox of Innovation
by George Tsakraklides
https://georgetsakraklides.substack.com/
Jan 16
Attention: the wheelbarrow, after all, may be a much safer mode of transport than your car
Civilizations always experience sudden, spectacular growth when they encounter innovation. Fire and metalworking, intensive agriculture, money, electricity, transportation, and a regulated workforce [1] all in their turn completely transformed what was originally a species of nomadic foragers. Popular perceptions focus on the benefits of innovations rather than the fact that they are frighteningly inevitable. There is very little that a civilization can do to manage the pace of innovation. Although they appear out of nowhere, innovations soon become essential to the point where they are taken for granted, much like the gears and hydraulics in a car : invisible from the outside, but vital to the operation, not just of the car itself, but an entire society that depends on this invention. Innovations integrate themselves into the bedrock of civilization much like beneficial bacteria attach themselves to the gut : we don’t see them, but we know we would die without them. Like organisms giving rise to their own technological parasites, civilizations become hostages to their intellectual progeny, unable to function outside the technological web they have created.
Historians call this cultural evolution. But as the list of innovations grows, so does the grip of this hostage situation, and all associated risks. Each new era brings with it its own innovations, which depend on all the previous innovations e.g. the internet depends on electricity, electricity depends on fossil fuel, fossil fuel depends on the invention of the wheel. As a result, the list of essential components that each successive civilization needs for its bare minimum daily function becomes longer and longer. What started as a simple wheelbarrow has now become a super-expensive car consisting of thousands of parts. And this is a problem.
Because it is much easier to maintain and repair a wheelbarrow compared to a Rolls Royce, and this is why advanced civilizations are much more susceptible to collapse. The very manufacture and existence of a Rolls Royce depends on the health of an incredibly long, complex set of economic and political conditions : the supply chains for the import of foreign-made parts, mining companies that extract rare earth minerals, universities that churn out engineers, labour unions that protect employees, politicians who endorse big manufacturing investments, and political stability that secures trade treaties allowing the movement of car parts across borders, just to mention a few.
Three decades ago, we could still imagine a world without e-mail. Today, we wouldn’t even know where to begin in imagining such a world. This demonstrates the paradox of innovation : although innovations bring about capabilities and advancements, they also hold civilizations hostage to their own success : once you have electricity, there is no option to ever go powerless again, even though a collapse of the power grid is more than a palpable scenario. In a world where the internet has become as important as fire was to early humans, we are helpless hostages to each new innovation.
But there is a terrifying progression in this hostage crisis : although we used to have the option to live without fire, under no condition can we afford to switch off the internet. Each innovation becomes an Achilles’ Heel : like algae living in symbiosis inside a coral, innovations are extremely sensitive to perturbations, putting the entire civilization at risk. Not only are they useless without the nurturing environment the civilization provides, but they also depend on a fragile, intricate web of numerous others, all equally fragile innovations. In fact, no innovation is ever a genuine game-changer, because it doesn’t stand alone. It is usually a mere improvement on a previous innovation, and sometimes not even that. Sometimes it is the combination of two preexisting innovations e.g. a phone and a computer that combined to create the smartphone.
This means that most innovation is a house of cards made of other innovations. The trouble with this type of synergy between innovations is that it can also work in reverse : failure in one key innovation can bring about a domino of failures in others, much like the disappearance of a keystone species can result in an ecosystem collapse : whether it is the supply of food, supply of electricity or supply of information, failure in one key area can quickly become an existential threat to many others. An unstable climate is an example of the type of disaster that can affect all of the above simultaneously.
The recurring tragedy of all civilizations is that they become entangled in their innovations [2], both for good and bad. The risk of an innovation mega-failure today is greater than ever, as our innovations develop their own agency and decide to bypass us. In the past, the collapse of civilizations was the result of underestimating the fragility of their web of innovations in the face of global disruption forces from nature, or from other civilizations. Today, we have the added risk of the innovations themselves consciously making the decision to turn against us. AI will likely be the very last major innovation we ever make, probably because we won’t outlive it.
The problem with the way we innovate is that it is always extremely near-sighted. Our civilizations have become masters at solving practical problems of the “right here right now” [3], but completely ignoring the most existential ones – ironically, problems which are often the direct result of these innovations. Catastrophic scenarios are ignored by all civilizations simply because they would require a rebuilding of the entire house of cards. Given how incompetent we are at catastrophizing, there is little to no projection, even in terms of contingency measures. For example, there will never be an emergency plan in place for the world momentarily running out of energy or internet, even though this is a possible scenario. Just like the climate crisis, these scenarios are so utterly devastating that no business or leader dares to “own” them : the usual quick fix of innovation doesn’t work for systemic crises, because the profits are way too far into the future. But this does not mean that these crises are not present and worsening. They have been merging into a polycrisis avalanche for at least the past few centuries, as we continue to create innovations while fully ignoring their biggest side effect : overshoot. Civilizations never learn from their mistakes. They would much rather repeat them using updated technologies, hoping that the outcome will be different this time around.
But innovation is not limited to technology. A relentless innovation of narratives goes hand in hand with innovation in the technology space, as our media systems fabricate civilizational lies [4] to prop up the house of cards. These narratives are vital in maintaining social cohesion and blind faith in the system. Myths are constantly woven around the infallibility and resilience of our flimsy web of innovations. These myths rely on other myths, creating the house of cards of myths we have come to call “culture”. As a rule, innovations are placed on a pedestal without query and quickly integrated into the fabric of our identity, much like our religions [5]. You just have to believe, that’s all.
Our innovations are set to become both the highlights of our legacy as well as our fatal destiny. Never before in its history has humanity built a civilization that had at its disposal so many different technologies to accurately monitor, measure and predict its own impending collapse - yet has been so incapable of doing anything about it. Despite our long list of innovations, our greatest legacy will end up being the decimation of this planet - a result of mindless, ruthless innovation. All the triumphs, discoveries, innovations and milestones of humanity’s brief presence on Earth will be demoted to fine print at the bottom of our civilization’s “Curriculum Vitae”. The permanent extinction of Earth’s lush ecosystems will trump all previous milestones of our short-lived civilization : every major scientific discovery, every painting or sculpture ever made, every piece of music conceived. Our elusive purpose finally becomes clear, as we follow the exact lifecycle of a comet : we arrived to quickly shine, destroy, and then self-destruct. In our pointless obsession to find our purpose and mission on a planet where all other species were happy to simply exist, we ended up sabotaging ourselves.
Our technobroligarchs [6] and their cronies pretend to know about innovation, physics and technology, but conveniently forget that both greed and arrogance are thermodynamically impossible to coexist with peace and harmony among species. No space rocket or Metaverse will ever refreeze a melted arctic, revive a rainforest, or jump start the Gulf Stream. The planet, humanity included, is being destroyed by a lethal combination of innovation and capitalism, increasingly led by an algorithmic monster [7] that transcends biology. As greed becomes digital and profit is driven by AI [8], this beast accelerates. This new being can’t feel emotions or appreciate biological life. It is designed as an efficient economic war machine, blindly locked onto its targets. Equality, the environment and its life forms are not assets but obstacles to this necroeconomic system. They are being eliminated to boost efficiency, effectiveness and profit.
If there is one thing an anthropologist soon learns it is that when a civilization dies, along with it dies any retrospection and introspection over what led to the collapse. Post-mortem analyses are spinned to blame “extraordinary and unforeseen external events” instead of the existential paradox of innovation that is the result of human near-sightedness. The cycle begins all over again, as the next civilization invents its own long list of fatal Achille’s Heels.
The George Tsakraklides View
Scientist and author probing everything this civilization refuses to discuss.
Bioeconomics. Capitalism. Systemic Trauma. Self-Destruction. Collapse.
Suzanne Taylor : Mighty Companions | West Hollywood, CA 90069
[1] https://substack.com/redirect/2ccf1828-2454-408a-8e11-a8aa67229e37?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[2] https://substack.com/redirect/0042a2cd-9b54-4adc-8597-f3f6119893fe?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[3] https://substack.com/redirect/6f42603c-9394-4472-88fc-379c4f7f9fe1?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[4] https://substack.com/redirect/f0b94f8f-a8df-47fd-a996-5f6f7253a803?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[5] https://substack.com/redirect/92ceb287-7e96-4318-8e8b-e929770d7f96?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[6] https://substack.com/redirect/52cdeb50-1f95-4c0b-a9c5-b717e32a15fb?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[7] https://substack.com/redirect/52cdeb50-1f95-4c0b-a9c5-b717e32a15fb?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
[8] https://substack.com/redirect/4a92cf82-d806-4319-a8aa-89d829877c32?j=eyJ1IjoiMXpuaXZiIn0.ZVSXYZMvziOmLNpxGA8FaahAo7Exx0oECiTnup9yrRU
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As the 'Main Posting' (above, on M1) has an 'extra credit' TMI section at its ending, why not some more.
Ten to 20 years ago, the idea to write a 'book' on "Why Empires Fail" arrived one day into mind.
I bought books on : Egypt, Greece, Rome, "Lord Lloyd and the Decline of The British Empire", "Empire" by Gore Vidal on the US in 1900, "The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich" by Shrier, and a couple of others, but 3000 pages plus is a lot of 'homework' to wade thru before even getting started, never mind the 'digestion time' ! And so, I haven't 'gotten around to it yet'. Lol , no surprise there ! Anyway, good to see that someone else is cogitating on Why Empires Fail !!! as our present-day Empire is also 'failing'. Hope we can do better next time, by learning why we failed in all the times past, and present !
Suzanne Taylor has some good ideas, motives, and intents, but she is a 'dyed-in-the-wool' Democrat, so expect some differences of opinion from time to time !! just saying, but don't ignore because of that ! Best, ST
