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The World Made By Hand: a "time-out" from human progress

The techno-industrial age is winding down, and with it the financial armature that supports it. The proximate cause is declining affordable fossil fuel energy. Alternative energy will not compensate for that loss and the major systems that advanced civilizations depend on will not be able to carry on. This includes high-tech agriculture especially, the loss of which will lead to significant famine around the world. The scale of human activity will collapse. 

Life will become economically and politically local, and many of the marginal regions, such as the American desert southwest, will not continue to support human settlement. 

Electric service will be scant and irregular, where it exists at all. 

The Internet revolution will prove to have been a short-lived phenomenon. 

Much of the work of whatever civilization remains will be done by human labor — in effect, a World Made By Hand. (As I described in the four novels The Long Emergency, Too Much Magic, The Geography of Nowhere, the World Made By Hand novels).  A great deal of knowledge and skill will be lost.

The net result will be a “time-out” from human progress, and it may continue for a very long time. There’s a possibility that the human race will never again match the dazzling technological achievements of recent decades.

I agree
27
I don't agree
50
Chris Beaudin Clean energy is developing very quickly, and even if fossil fuels ran out tomorrow there would still be electricity (though it would be limited and likely expensive), so knowledge would not be lost.
06 Feb 2022
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Dylan Wilson Chris Beaudin, clean energy... the numbers on lithium mining are a bit grim and civilizations rise and fall so this is a possibility. But one that hopefully doesn't eventuate.
11 Sep 2022
Tuana at neden arabayı çekiyor
18 Oct 2021
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Aereo _ This may well happen, and if it does we have to adapt to it.. sadly it is very likely and very scary to think about, especially people at a younger age whose future depend on this.
11 Jul 2021
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Robert Hotten Further, embracing a new normal. A new mind set of getting beyond the noise of denial that the world has already changed and operating with hope and resilience is necessary.
09 Sep 2020
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Robert Hotten A partial cultural reversion is possible to a subsistence economy of agricultural and crafts in a Neo mideval and colonial tribal setting. The foundation to make this possible will likely be in the strengthening of clan structures weakened by over dependency on technology.
09 Sep 2020
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Conlan Ryan I highly agree with this. Not by 2050 though. A few more modern advances and civilization will have nowhere to go.
07 Dec 2019
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Henrique B. Martins hmm.. what about... NO
31 Oct 2019
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Twin Ruler Many others also predicted such a scenario, including John Michael Greer and Kurt Saxon, among others.
12 May 2019
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