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Complex Societies

Joe Tainter: “Surplus, Complexity, and Simplification”

July 18, 2022 by Nate Hagens

What are the key differences between complicated and complex? How can we better understand energy and society through these key distinctions?

Categories Energy, Society, Society featured Tags building resilient societies, Complex Societies Leave a comment

Society As Platform — A New Frontier in Complexity Science

December 5, 2018 by Joe Brewer

Our evolved history as a species has not prepared us for what is happening now. It is time to start seeing culture as a complex system that evolves according to Darwinian principles.

Categories Act: Inspiration, Environment, Society, Society featured Tags building resilient societies, Complex Societies, culture, systems thinking Leave a comment

Human Predators, Human Prey – Part 1

August 9, 2021July 30, 2018 by Richard Heinberg

Could we use predator-prey relationships among widely divergent species in nature as a metaphor to help in understanding the behavior of people in complex human societies, in which some people gain at the expense of others?

Categories Editor’s picks, Environment, Society Tags building resilient societies, Complex Societies, predation 3 Comments

The post-fact world and the need for a new consensus

December 15, 2020December 11, 2016 by Kurt Cobb

Debate is no longer a means to find the truth by testing ideas against the questions and criticisms of other, it is mostly propaganda designed to win no matter what the truth is.

Categories Society Tags American politics, Complex Societies, scientific method, social breakdown Leave a comment

The End of Employment

December 15, 2020April 17, 2014 by John Michael Greer

Nothing is easier, as the Long Descent begins to pick up speed around us, than giving in to despair—and nothing is more pointless.

Categories Society Tags collapse of industrial civilization, Complex Societies, ecotechnic societies Leave a comment

Self-organising societies

December 15, 2020February 13, 2014 by Mary Odum

If we are to have any future society, it will be a more cooperative and self-organizing one.

Categories Uncategorized Tags Complex Societies, resilient systems Leave a comment

Muddling Through and Unsung Heroes

December 15, 2020January 27, 2014 by Roger Boyd

Our future will involve a lot of just "muddling through" as our complex society starts to fall apart, and we must stay away from the "strong men" who will offer appealingly simple answers to complex problems.

Categories Act: Inspiration, Society Tags Complex Societies, energy descent, powering down Leave a comment

The Schizophrenic Society

December 15, 2020January 10, 2014 by Roger Boyd

Lost in a make believe world while we destroy the real one.

Categories Society Tags Complex Societies, Denial, environmental threats, limits to growth, neoliberal ideology 1 Comment

Unsustainable Farming: From Bird Droppings to Corporate Agriculture

December 15, 2020November 22, 2013 by Roger Boyd

The discovery of new lands to exploit, and new energy sources, helped reinforce the notion that human societies can always find a way around limitations upon its growth.

Categories Food & Water Tags agriculture, Biotechnology, Complex Societies, complexity, Cuba, farming, limits to growth Leave a comment

Resilience is a program of Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the world transition away from fossil fuels and build sustainable, resilient communities.

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