On 8 December 2014 at 23:44, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On 07 Dec 2014, at 22:17, LizR wrote: > > On 8 December 2014 at 01:30, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> On 06 Dec 2014, at 10:37, LizR wrote: >> >> That's a curious question. The ruins and record indicate that there was >> no ancient civilisation that had anything like the knowledge or resources >> of modern day technology. For example, no ancient civilisation discovered >> the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power. One could argue that these things >> aren't in fact good for modern civilisation, but since we don't know how >> things will work out that would be presumptuous. >> >> For the nuclear resources, I follow you. For the use of petrol (dead >> plants), arguments (in favor of Hemp, 'course) already mentioned that it >> was not sustainable, and that it would disrupt life equilibrium in the >> middle run (a point made already by Henry Ford). >> > > My point is that using fossil fuels MAY have bridged the gap from > preindustrial society to a sustainable postindustrial one - we don't know > yet. > > > I think so for fossil fuels other than petrol. And we would have use > living plants, we would have still used petrol, but with a means of an > economical regulation based on fair or fairer competition. The problem is > that once we get criminals organizing the market, we lost all the > regulating factors, and the society get pyramidal in the Monty way. This > leads to social crisis, and life becomes hard. In UK the number of people > having food problem has gone from 200,000 to 900,000, for example. The > current austerity is nonsense, but we are all hostage of bandits. > I agree. But again we don't know how this will pan out. Someone (I forget who) recently published an economic analysis that indicates the western world is due for another round of revolutions soon (his analysis was, to simplify no doubt enormously, that inequalities tend to become magnified over time and eventually get so bad that the ruling class is overthrown - then the cycle starts again). If that happens, then it's possible the slate will be wiped and rewritten. There have certainly been signs that we might be heading for some form of cyber-revolution, with govts failing to keep up with technology (except for surveillance) and being undermined by a tech-savvy middle class. (Perhaps. Or was that just the plot of my next novel...?) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
