The kernel of the idea is that all the activity of all living systems and all the systems they create follow the rules laid down by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This includes plants, animals, human beings and all human systems such as our various educational, legal, political and religious systems. Basically, everything we do is shaped by the effects of this law.
Here are the effects that are the most important for human civilization:
1. The Second Law enables the growth of systems as they import free energy. All systems will grow in complexity or size if possible, so long as surplus energy is available and their own structure permits it.
2. If growth is possible and energy is available, systems almost always grow rather than shrink. Systems only stop growing or begin to shrink if the energy needed for growth is no longer available, or their internal structure can no longer support growth (e.g. due to ageing).
3. If two systems compete for the same resources (think of two countries who both want a particular piece of land), the one that can mobilize the most energy the most efficiently tends to win the contest. This is why Russia won WWII, and also why empires with access to more energy succeed empires less energy. Think of the Spanish empire based on wind power, the British empire based on coal, and the American empire based on oil. High-powered systems tend displace lower-powered systems unless special rules are in place.
4. These growth-enabling effects become encoded in our genetics over time, and as a result become part of our unconscious thought processes. This is described by the branch of psychology called evolutionary psychology. This is why growth (for example growing salaries, GDP, population size, industrial capacity and communications and transportation networks) seems so unremarkably natural to us, and the shrinking of any of these seems troublesome or sometimes even catastrophic.
5. Because these thought tendencies come from our deep evolved brain structures they are difficult to fight against. When people are in large groups (like countries) this thinking is reinforced by other aspects of evolutionary psychology that act to keep such large groups together. Outliers (like me) are not tolerated at any high level because our ideas are seen as threats to the cohesion and continued growth of the group.
6. Because of all this, our global civilization is "highly unlikely" to take action to reduce its growth significantly, especially where energy and resource consumption are concerned.
7. Collectively, this civilization is screwed, and there ain't a blessed thing we can do about it.
8. Individuals have more freedom of action, so that's where we will see the most change before the collapse begins in earnest. However, their changes will not have much if any influence on the behaviour of society at large. The best we can hope for is that such individuals will act as a sort of "seed stock" for some post-collapse societies.
= new reply since forum marked as read
