Quote: (09-01-2013 04:21 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:
Quote: (09-01-2013 03:27 AM)rhr Wrote:
Watch this short vid by Joseph Tainter, it's eye & mind opening:
Tainter however has some big blindspots, particularly the proliferation of psycho/sociopath during the decline phase of a society. I would recommend reading his book "Collapse of Complex Civilizations"
Doomsday obsession is for young men who haven't heard it continuously for 40 -50 years like I have, while everything changes only marginally.
Counter-example to the deep-voice of doom from this guy:
California's electricity consumption has been flat all the time we've invented all this modern computer shit over the last years.
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/aml6/...Energy.pdf
If all these smart people would invent something instead of howling "the end is near" we'd be better off, although they wouldn't sell as many books.
"It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness"; to me all these people are more trying to appear smart by listing all the things that are going wrong, than they are serving their purported goal of helping us avoid Bad Things.
They're always selling something, a book, a talk show, gold, whatever it is. If he was so smart why doesn't he invent a better switch for solar power or something positive.
"Everthing is going to hell" is not a valuable contribution, knowledge wise or morale wise.
It's easier to dismiss these people when the economy is healthy. It's even easier when there isn't a pervasive surveillance culture.
While it sounds like you're in the last stretch of your life, the ones of us who have a few laps left are the ones who can't bury our heads in the sand any longer. The wealth we had as children is no longer existent and the future is not anywhere near as bright.