how civilization will collapse

[oldcynic]

...collapses have occurred many times in human history, and no civilization, no matter how seemingly great, is immune to the vulnerabilities that may lead a society to its end. Regardless of how well things are going in the present moment, the situation can always change. Putting aside species-ending events like an asteroid strike, nuclear winter or deadly pandemic, history tells us that it’s usually a plethora of factors that contribute to collapse. What are they, and which, if any, have already begun to surface? It should come as no surprise that humanity is currently on an unsustainable and uncertain path – but just how close are we to reaching the point of no return?

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170418-how-western-civilisation-could-collapse

[ck4829]

1. A civilization ending may also not be as dramatic as we picture it

I think we picture "civilization ending" and we think of us or our children roasting small animals on spits under the shadows of skylines of decayed and abandoned cities while corporate logos they don't know how to read have become "gifts" from ancient precursors and wage religious warfare over them.

Now with Trump, anything is possible. But I am thinking civilization replacement is much more possible.

[sagesnow]

2. Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed

by Jared Diamond is another informative book warning that our society could collapse in ways similar to those seen in Easter Island and the Norse culture in Greenland.

"Diamond's next book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, published in 2005, examines a range of past societies in an attempt to identify why they either collapsed or continued to thrive and considers what contemporary societies can learn from these historical examples. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, he argues against explanations for the failure of past societies based primarily on cultural factors, instead focusing on ecology. Among the societies mentioned in the book are the Norse and Inuit of Greenland, the Maya, the Anasazi, the indigenous people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Japan, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and modern Montana. The book concludes by asking why some societies make disastrous decisions, how big businesses affect the environment, what our principal environmental problems are today, and what individuals can do about those

problems."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond

[Binkie The Clown]

4. And the solution is...

to quote from the article:

Using reason and science to guide decisions, paired with extraordinary leadership and exceptional goodwill, human society can progress to higher and higher levels of well-being and development

In other words, it's as simple as fundamentally altering human nature to respond to reason rather than emotion, and benefit from extraordinary leadership and discover the key to universal exceptional goodwill. Well, if it's that easy, there's nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, if those three exceedingly improbable conditions don't magically come about (and let's be realistic, the won't come about) then civilization is doomed.

[zipplewrath]

6. separating reason and emotion

When reason tells you to let 100K people die, so 2 million can live, it can be hard to not let emotion take over.

[Nitram]

8. I agree, zipple, emotion is as important as reason.

But they must be held in balance, and applied in harmony. Research on decision-making ha proven that emotion is an essential component of all "rational" thinking.

[zipplewrath]

11. Spock was fiction

As much as I loved Spock's character, any critical review of the character would show that there is no "emotionless logic". Curiosity, skepticism, fear, ambition, these are the things that make us ask, question, search, and wonder. Then there are things like sympathy, empathy, and compassion.

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom"

[oldcynic]

5. ymetca, you open an interesting sidebar

I've concluded the human brain is incapable of conceiving not being. If I cannot be, then nobody can (another definition of life should include "selfcenteredness). Isn't there a sci-fi story about the universe vanishing with the death of the person who dreamed it? In that case when you go, we all go. Now try to imagine what's out there, or not. That's why people need religion.

[Duppers]

7. The sure catalyst will be Climate Change.

[Nitram]

9. More like the acid test of our civilization.

[NickB79]

12. And some of us here may live long enough to witness it.

I'm 37, and my family typically lives into their 80's and 90's (great grandpa farmed until he was 92).

I figure a good portion of global civilization will be buckling by 2050 or so. Failed states, famines, climate refugees by the millions, economic depressions and civil wars.

[Nitram]

10. Civilization will collapse not with a bang but a whimper.

H/t T.S. Eliot.