Technology

The fifth problem: peak capital

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Much of what we are seeing now may be a symptom of peak capital approaching: airports, roads, bridges, dikes, dams, and about everything that goes under the name of “infrastructure” are decaying everywhere in the world. The whole economic system is becoming unable to maintain the level of complexity it had reached just a few decades ago.

Ten ways to Twitter our way to hyper-local sustainability

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Recently, we have had amazing breakthroughs in human communications. We have broken the four-minute mile, and the real-time web of living in the moment has arrived. You can now be instantly witnessed around the world by anyone with a modern communications device. There are useful applications for this technology that can be immediately applied to community-building.

The economics of decline

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Proponents of technofixes for the crisis of industrial society are fond of insisting that today’s complex technologies are “more efficient” or “more economical” than the alternatives. Behind that claim lies a series of assumptions that are likely to turn out severely misguided as the age of cheap abundant energy comes to an end.

Let’s party ’til the helium’s gone

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The fun qualities of helium stand in stark contrast to its deadly serious applications which are increasingly endangered. For although helium is the second most abundant element in the universe–hydrogen is the first–it is exceedingly rare on Earth; and, our cavalier attitude toward its use threatens tasks that are critical to maintaining our complex society.