Eloquent and perceptive, Daphne! (As always!) It feels like we are living in the next William Gibson novel! Or he is attuned more than most popular writers! My reply, resonating with your insights and vision, is stuck on one major question: the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics…having had this fossil-fueled orgy of excess, will there be the ability/time/resources to reset global homeostasis?
History shows that all mass societies are unsustainable because of entropy. Without constant renewal, a nation of 50 states and 347 million people can’t possibly remain unified. It’s kind of a miracle that Rome lasted a thousand years or that the United States lasted 250 years. There were numerous resets in both empires that kept them going but in each reset they changed (and not always for the better).
I’ve read that the ideal size of any given society is much smaller than the modern mass societies we see today. Anything larger than a tribe of a few thousand people is ultimately ungovernable and unsustainable, even with constant and intentional renewal.
In the United States, the nation is now ungovernable and the states will take on much more sovereignty because they are smaller and therefore more likely to be governable and sustainable.
The bad news is that tribes fight because humans can’t help themselves. We are envious and vindictive creatures and so tribal war is also inevitable.
It seems to me that only island nations have even a hope of living in sustainable peace because an ocean is harder to traverse than an arbitrary land boundary.
Until the prefrontal cortex of the human brain is fully developed and in charge, war, predation, and vulnerability to propaganda and malignant narrative will continue.
Interesting. It reminds me of a book I came across not too long ago. I haven't read it yet. If agree with you that when societies become too complex, our self models cannot keep up. Collapse seems indeed seems inevitable. And when we look at nature, collapse is something completely natural. Like a supernova, or a tree dying in the forest. Death in general. Entropy, yes. But evolution is also real. And so is learning by becoming more complex. Perhaps in the long run, collapse is needed, to create complexity that can withstand entropy better. Because when we look at bacteria and evolution of life on earth, it collapsed so many times, but it also evolved through collapse and led to new forms. We are a transitional species, but every life form is. And perhaps this system collapses and what comes out of it will be something more energy efficient. This is not about it becoming a morally good or bad system. Because that term is human made. But something new. We will see. And I will continue updating the system. I am aware that even truth is a moving thing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Bless you.
I also agree that evolution is real and is ultimately a positive but man, does it move slowly. That’s why transhumanism is popular nowadays among the technorati. They want results in their lifetime and so they believe radical intervention is necessary, rather than just letting nature take its course.
And that's completely fair. We live relatively long compared to our ancestors, but we are but a bleep on the timeline of evolution. We are already part of the evolution, trust me. But when you look at the past, evolution has always been really slow. We just see the end results of it. But yes, I totally understand the sense of urgency, especially when you clearly see so much around you that is no longer coherent.
Your framing captures something crucial: collapse isn’t a sequence of failures, it’s a phase-shift in the coordination architecture. The old model distributed coherence vertically, institutions, narratives, centralized energy. The emerging attractor distributes coherence horizontally , nervous systems, local networks, polycentric structures. The ‘self’ didn’t dissolve by accident; centralized identity collapses for the same reason centralized empire does: the energy cost exceeds the complexity load. What remains is whatever can regulate itself in real time!
Enjoyed your post. I read across many types of writers here and this is a common theme. From science to political to spiritual writers, many are pointing to the same trajectory. It gives me hope. Personally, I see deep prehistory as a matriarchal nature existence followed by written history and the rise of patriarchal values which are collapsing now. The future is the child of these naturally combined energies. I have no idea how this happens, but it seems the natural outcome.
A node in the process that has lived in contraction in a traumatized nervous system for centuries finally waking up to what it actually always has been.
Curious, what, in your estimation has this waking up node always been, as much as you can say in words?
Just a dynamical process trying to reduce contradiction within a specific historical and energetic constraint-field. When the constraint-field shifts, the node reorganizes. A “waking up” isn’t mystical, it’s simply the collapse of an outdated error-minimizing model and the emergence of a new one that can better stabilize the incoming reality. That adaptive reconfiguration is what we call evolution.
Good insights. But still it is a moral and cultural issue and problem when a Tiny part of the population worldwide hoard most of the resources and the Energy and the wealth at the extensie of all human and non-human life
Hoarding is real, but it’s downstream of the deeper psychological shift that made hoarding possible. The tiny group isn’t an anomaly, it’s an expression of a self-model wired for scarcity, separation, and control. If we don’t understand the root mechanism, the pattern simply repeats with different actors.
“This is not ZEN, this is not just seeing through the illusion of self. This is not enlightenment. This is not becoming a Buddha. This is not becoming empty. This is not infinite peace or escaping suffering. This is waking up to the truth. “ this is everything. I’ve always been confused why people think we should replicate the awakening of those who awakened thousands of years ago … the awoke to what needed to be realized then…which is now obsolete in our era or at least its foundational but not the whole of what needs to be realized.
Love this, especially the offhand comment about Buddhism.
I think Eastern mysticism is a trap for those western folks who are curious about interconnectedness and complexity. It is so beguiling because it seems to give a language, but it is unnecessary.
Eloquent and perceptive, Daphne! (As always!) It feels like we are living in the next William Gibson novel! Or he is attuned more than most popular writers! My reply, resonating with your insights and vision, is stuck on one major question: the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics…having had this fossil-fueled orgy of excess, will there be the ability/time/resources to reset global homeostasis?
Trust. 🙏
History shows that all mass societies are unsustainable because of entropy. Without constant renewal, a nation of 50 states and 347 million people can’t possibly remain unified. It’s kind of a miracle that Rome lasted a thousand years or that the United States lasted 250 years. There were numerous resets in both empires that kept them going but in each reset they changed (and not always for the better).
I’ve read that the ideal size of any given society is much smaller than the modern mass societies we see today. Anything larger than a tribe of a few thousand people is ultimately ungovernable and unsustainable, even with constant and intentional renewal.
In the United States, the nation is now ungovernable and the states will take on much more sovereignty because they are smaller and therefore more likely to be governable and sustainable.
The bad news is that tribes fight because humans can’t help themselves. We are envious and vindictive creatures and so tribal war is also inevitable.
It seems to me that only island nations have even a hope of living in sustainable peace because an ocean is harder to traverse than an arbitrary land boundary.
Until the prefrontal cortex of the human brain is fully developed and in charge, war, predation, and vulnerability to propaganda and malignant narrative will continue.
Interesting. It reminds me of a book I came across not too long ago. I haven't read it yet. If agree with you that when societies become too complex, our self models cannot keep up. Collapse seems indeed seems inevitable. And when we look at nature, collapse is something completely natural. Like a supernova, or a tree dying in the forest. Death in general. Entropy, yes. But evolution is also real. And so is learning by becoming more complex. Perhaps in the long run, collapse is needed, to create complexity that can withstand entropy better. Because when we look at bacteria and evolution of life on earth, it collapsed so many times, but it also evolved through collapse and led to new forms. We are a transitional species, but every life form is. And perhaps this system collapses and what comes out of it will be something more energy efficient. This is not about it becoming a morally good or bad system. Because that term is human made. But something new. We will see. And I will continue updating the system. I am aware that even truth is a moving thing. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Bless you.
https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X
The book you suggested looks good. I’m going to read it.
I also agree that evolution is real and is ultimately a positive but man, does it move slowly. That’s why transhumanism is popular nowadays among the technorati. They want results in their lifetime and so they believe radical intervention is necessary, rather than just letting nature take its course.
And that's completely fair. We live relatively long compared to our ancestors, but we are but a bleep on the timeline of evolution. We are already part of the evolution, trust me. But when you look at the past, evolution has always been really slow. We just see the end results of it. But yes, I totally understand the sense of urgency, especially when you clearly see so much around you that is no longer coherent.
Your framing captures something crucial: collapse isn’t a sequence of failures, it’s a phase-shift in the coordination architecture. The old model distributed coherence vertically, institutions, narratives, centralized energy. The emerging attractor distributes coherence horizontally , nervous systems, local networks, polycentric structures. The ‘self’ didn’t dissolve by accident; centralized identity collapses for the same reason centralized empire does: the energy cost exceeds the complexity load. What remains is whatever can regulate itself in real time!
It reminds me of a sci-fi story where this guy tracked everything and when all the peaks aligned the world ended.
Enjoyed your post. I read across many types of writers here and this is a common theme. From science to political to spiritual writers, many are pointing to the same trajectory. It gives me hope. Personally, I see deep prehistory as a matriarchal nature existence followed by written history and the rise of patriarchal values which are collapsing now. The future is the child of these naturally combined energies. I have no idea how this happens, but it seems the natural outcome.
Accurate, yes.
Can you elucidate on this passage a bit further?
A node in the process that has lived in contraction in a traumatized nervous system for centuries finally waking up to what it actually always has been.
Curious, what, in your estimation has this waking up node always been, as much as you can say in words?
Just a dynamical process trying to reduce contradiction within a specific historical and energetic constraint-field. When the constraint-field shifts, the node reorganizes. A “waking up” isn’t mystical, it’s simply the collapse of an outdated error-minimizing model and the emergence of a new one that can better stabilize the incoming reality. That adaptive reconfiguration is what we call evolution.
Good insights. But still it is a moral and cultural issue and problem when a Tiny part of the population worldwide hoard most of the resources and the Energy and the wealth at the extensie of all human and non-human life
Hoarding is real, but it’s downstream of the deeper psychological shift that made hoarding possible. The tiny group isn’t an anomaly, it’s an expression of a self-model wired for scarcity, separation, and control. If we don’t understand the root mechanism, the pattern simply repeats with different actors.
“This is not ZEN, this is not just seeing through the illusion of self. This is not enlightenment. This is not becoming a Buddha. This is not becoming empty. This is not infinite peace or escaping suffering. This is waking up to the truth. “ this is everything. I’ve always been confused why people think we should replicate the awakening of those who awakened thousands of years ago … the awoke to what needed to be realized then…which is now obsolete in our era or at least its foundational but not the whole of what needs to be realized.
This!!! Yes, honey 🙏
Wow! Yes and thank you. 🩵
🫠🥀🖤🌱
Love this, especially the offhand comment about Buddhism.
I think Eastern mysticism is a trap for those western folks who are curious about interconnectedness and complexity. It is so beguiling because it seems to give a language, but it is unnecessary.
Very thoughtful piece, thank you for sharing and influencing my thoughts today