How the pursuit of science also serves modernity
Much of science is in the service of modernity, producing remarkable short-term advantages for humans generally at the expense of the rest of the community of life.
modernity
A lawful anarchist: The case against law in an age of mass extinction
We’re taught that without rigid legal systems society would collapse into chaos. But for most of human history, people relied on communal norms, not codified law, while the rise of written rules, hierarchy, and possessions cleared the way for today’s sixth mass extinction.
Why can’t we agree about the future?
Why do people with access to the same facts arrive at radically different conclusions about the future? Physicist Tom Murphy reflects on an impasse with Dave Murphy over modernity, ecological limits and humanity’s place in the living world.
Evidence, please?
Modernity (even if defining starting 10,000 years ago) is a short-lived phase that will self-terminate—likely starting this century.
Was Modernity Inevitable?
Perhaps not surprisingly, I lean toward the conclusion that modernity was inevitable. My position is reasonably strengthened by the observation that we are, in fact, where we are.
The Dawn of Everything
Graeber and Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything keeps coming up in my life—especially as I dip an amateur toe into trying to understand human prehistory—so I thought I had better take a look.
Married to an Axe Murderer
So here’s the thing: Modernity is an axe murderer, and we’re—unfortunately—married to it. It isn’t hard to see modernity’s fatal flaw of being constitutionally unsustainable, and that it’s on a violent rampage.
Learning to walk again
One of the most important steps we can take is in realizing that we are not civilization: humanity is a bigger and more versatile concept than the current mode we’ve stumbled onto (become trapped within).
Our Time on the River
We might now wish to slow things down, but modernity was built on a lie; a fatal flaw. If we voiced the command: “Slow down, Hal,” we’d get the response: “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Fusion Foolery
It seems quite clear that the track we are on does not lead to the stars, but to ignominious self-termination of this whacky mode called modernity.
Desperate Odds?
If plunged overnight into the end of civilization, we would have a rough go of it. But given time to adapt and shed the trappings of modernity, those who are willing to let go and embrace new (old?) ways of living will stand a decent chance of being satisfied with life.
Call Me, Ishmael!
As more people become disillusioned with the relentless march of modernity—no longer buying into its deluded destiny and suspecting a mindless march toward a cliff edge—they may simply stop participating in the expected ways.
