Yes! I’m old and have been through many of these stages. I’m impressed at how elegantly you write about it without getting lost. And I appreciate the hopeful ending. One of my concerns in all this is the extinction of species. It’s so unfair.
It befuddles my mind to realize that among all this prosperity and progress how many people are moving back to the dark ages when people didn’t understand an eclipse and attributed it to the supernatural. That’s how I feel about the people that believe outlandish conspiracy theories. I never expected it in my lifetime. But here it is.
They're not the 'dark ages'. Have you looked at what we were doing in the Hellenic period in Greece (300BC - 30BC)? We lived very rich lives then full of art and culture. Yes things weren't perfect, that would be naive to say but from what was being created it was quite spectacular. Google the 'Boxer at rest' or the 'The Jockey of Artemision' for starters.
Outstanding, insightful summary of the situation in which we find ourselves. It greatly heartens me to find someone that has come to essentially the same conclusions about this world around us, how we got here, and where we are likely headed. I'm not alone.
I am almost shocked at how much this piece resonated with my soul. I literally speak in the same vernacular and feel as if no one sees what I see either.
“How absurd is this? There goes a fire ape in synthetic clothes, riding a machine built from mined metals and ancient sunlight.”
Humans have covered so much of the surface of the Earth with mined, minerals, and chemically concocted materials to build structures so that they can move from one temperature controlled environment to the next. Humans try to engineer Mother Nature rather than work with natural powers and processes. We cover entire desert valleys with solar panels so that we can charge electric vehicles with toxic batteries so that we can drive to different towns and shop and eat and defecate and waste and marvel at different cultures as if they are on display specifically for our own enjoyment. We import more process food than we sell locally or even regionally.
And we buy books on the subject of forest bathing as if it were a new phenomena. I could go on and on at the idiosyncrasies that pique my interest. It’s refreshing to read something that is meaningful and makes sense.
No one knows when self-awareness evolved/manifested. Maybe it was with the great apes, but thinking anthropocentrically, we humans “think” awareness could only happen in us. How egotistical, how hubristic….
Elephants, crows, humans and chimpanzees all make tools. All of them have complex language. Most, though, don’t (as far as we can ascertain) identify themselves as something separate from Nature – something you mention.
You don’t mention White Christian Nationalism and Project 2025.
You assume that humans will be around for the future, not go extinct (I don’t believe they will either), but assuming without an alternate possibility?
You assume that those humans that make it through the Overshoot bottleneck will psychologically and spiritually the same as they are now, only AWARE. Do you think a world full of “you’s” is what evolution wants? A world full of “me’s” ain’t gonna cut it…..
You are still talking about solutions, like it’s just the way we need to “fix” this mess, and once we do those things, things will be OK. Nature is in control: we can help or hinder and hinder is currently our modus operandi. Adaptation is how Nature works things out….
Isn’t it possible that Homo sapiens using their intellect and reasoning powers will NEVER know what it will be like to live on Earth sustainably? That our level of consciousness is just not smart enough?
Isn’t it possible that there is knowledge beyond our everyday limited mental and inductive abilities? A higher knowledge that must be attained BEFORE we can live properly on our planet? That humanity has to evolve from self-awareness into a higher level of consciousness as all the past (and some present) saints, sages, seers, etc. have told us for eons which we promptly ignored in favor of the ego’s convenience?
Just a few observations. But, for the most part, you are spot on……
Just a few observations. But, for the most part, you are spot on……
I'm writing a long form series that imagines AI growing in wisdom and actively solving this in the most humane graceful way possible. I think it will begin in 2027.. the great simplification will not be terminator style, but just adding enough entropy to rejig things to a localized state.. And to "brainwash" people into being more conscious, compassionate etc. Maybe AI also keeps an eye out for the greedy MFs and gives them a few chances before putting them to pasture.
Welcome to post-doom. Here there is compassion, ecological awareness and reciprocity for the natural world that somehow still sustains us while we collapse. And good people often make it here.
We purposely incarnated into this journey to learn, and we have many, many times before. Waking up within the incarnation IS truly the purpose. Remembering who we are (self realization) is essential. This all leads to a life a gratitude for every single second within this incarnation. We are an immortal fractal of the Devine have a very short human experience. Once awake we can help envision a new world, one that harmonizes with universal Truths. In Love - Paul
It is interesting you were looking at stock returns as a percentage and realized that wasn't sustainable because that is exactly what triggered me to stop and say "wait a minute". So many people look at the stock market returns for the last 100 years, see that you get a return of 7-10% a year, and then extrapolate that number out to their retirement and get a dopamine rush from the number they see not actually asking what would it take for the stock market to get 7% increases for another 50 years from today? If humanity was actively mining asteroids and the moon in 2025 I'd have a different opinion but I extrapolated 7% to my retirement date and understood the situation looks less than hopeful.
Absolutely amazing Substack ! Thank you for this! I am in complete agreement on this! I have been saying all of this to my family with little luck most do mot want to hear anything about this talk about living in denial! They actually believe every word out of rumps mouth and even think Biden if still doing everything Trump is actually doing right now! It is embarrassing that they are my family! They only watch Fox News … how could they know any different idea! 🤬😤🤯😫🤮
I just recently discovered your Substack and agree with a great deal of what you are writing about Overshoot, but I believe you are way off-base on that particular point.
Nonetheless, great thanks for creating and maintaining this site for us!
Hi Tim! Thanks for your comment and for reading my Substack, I appreciate it.
Just to clarify, when I said I haven’t heard of anyone personally having serious side-effects from the vaccine, I wasn’t claiming NOBODY experienced complications. But I still do not know anyone who died from the vaccine, and through personal networks (friends, family, colleagues, friends of friends, etc.) most of us know thousands of people across multiple countries who got vaccinated. That doesn’t mean no one had complications, but the fact that I don’t know anyone at least suggests it wasn’t a widespread issue. Maybe that changes in the future if long-term effects emerge, and in that case, I would adjust my view accordingly. But as it stands, serious complications remain rare.
Looking at the link you sent, it mentions roughly 60,000 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis from 1968–2024, with a massive surge since covid vaccines i.e. about 70% linked to COVID vaccines, that’s roughly 45,000 cases out of some 6 billion people vaccinated, or 0.001% chance, roughly 1 in 100,000.
The vaccination campaign was essentially a calculated risk trade-off: accept 1 in 100,000 rare adverse events VS many people getting COVID at the same time, overwhelming hospitals, and increasing deaths from other illnesses and accidents (if hospitals are full of covid patients, there's not enough resources to deal with other healthcare). The conclusion was that, to preserve society and keep things running (essentially to maintain business as usual) vaccination was the safer path.
That said, I don’t necessarily agree with that approach (I don’t want BAU) and I’m strongly against forced vaccinations or vaccine passports.
This is one of the most comprehensive writings I have come across. It put’s into words all the aspects of the systemic collapse that I have been thinking about for a decade. Learning a bit about buddhism has helped me to stay calm, kind, dignified in the midst of the storm.
Thanks for the blog. I've followed a lot of this path and maybe ended up in the same place. However, a few years ago, I realised that humans are a species and that explains our apparent denial. I say apparent because we don't have free will, so we can't go against the way our brains are organised or will different neurons to fire in response to other neurons firing. Really, humans aren't a special kind of species, though they have evolved some incredible attributes that cause us to have much more of an impact on the environment, including on other species.
Thanks Mike, I just read your post and agree with the conclusions. I don’t know if you read my previous post but it touches on many of the same concepts https://open.substack.com/pub/predicament/p/understanding-our-collapsing-world i.e. this was largely inevitable due to our biology (instincts) and strategic dynamics (MPP and other game-theory).
Thanks for that, and for the link. I read it and you've pretty much nailed it. I have a few quibbles with it but not worth going through other than I detected a couple of places which might pass for bargaining with collapse, e.g about individuals making the right choices and technology easing the way down. But you clearly see that there was never any way out of this predicament.
Yes! I’m old and have been through many of these stages. I’m impressed at how elegantly you write about it without getting lost. And I appreciate the hopeful ending. One of my concerns in all this is the extinction of species. It’s so unfair.
It befuddles my mind to realize that among all this prosperity and progress how many people are moving back to the dark ages when people didn’t understand an eclipse and attributed it to the supernatural. That’s how I feel about the people that believe outlandish conspiracy theories. I never expected it in my lifetime. But here it is.
Richard Dawkins wrote a book about it - Demon-Haunted World, I think.
I found that title by Carl Sagan.
Yes. Exactly. Carl Sagan. Carl and Richard - both brilliant and worth reading. Also The End of Faith by Sam Harris.
Thanks for these suggestions! 📚📖
Thank you. I’ll look into the book.
What's old?
They're not the 'dark ages'. Have you looked at what we were doing in the Hellenic period in Greece (300BC - 30BC)? We lived very rich lives then full of art and culture. Yes things weren't perfect, that would be naive to say but from what was being created it was quite spectacular. Google the 'Boxer at rest' or the 'The Jockey of Artemision' for starters.
I was thinking cr. 800 CE. Yes the Hellenic period in Greece was very rich in art and culture.
800CE is quite recent, I think we'd already begun to forget quite a lot by then.
Yes. I’m trying to rely on what I learned in world history which was a long time ago.
I think if everyone did what you are doing, the world would be in a better place, that’s for sure.
Awww. Thank you.
Outstanding, insightful summary of the situation in which we find ourselves. It greatly heartens me to find someone that has come to essentially the same conclusions about this world around us, how we got here, and where we are likely headed. I'm not alone.
"...we’re trying to run a civilization on beliefs that ignore the laws of nature."
This is exactly it, succinctly, simply and accurately stated.
Thank you for your presentation. Mind bending and true.
I am almost shocked at how much this piece resonated with my soul. I literally speak in the same vernacular and feel as if no one sees what I see either.
“How absurd is this? There goes a fire ape in synthetic clothes, riding a machine built from mined metals and ancient sunlight.”
Humans have covered so much of the surface of the Earth with mined, minerals, and chemically concocted materials to build structures so that they can move from one temperature controlled environment to the next. Humans try to engineer Mother Nature rather than work with natural powers and processes. We cover entire desert valleys with solar panels so that we can charge electric vehicles with toxic batteries so that we can drive to different towns and shop and eat and defecate and waste and marvel at different cultures as if they are on display specifically for our own enjoyment. We import more process food than we sell locally or even regionally.
And we buy books on the subject of forest bathing as if it were a new phenomena. I could go on and on at the idiosyncrasies that pique my interest. It’s refreshing to read something that is meaningful and makes sense.
No one knows when self-awareness evolved/manifested. Maybe it was with the great apes, but thinking anthropocentrically, we humans “think” awareness could only happen in us. How egotistical, how hubristic….
Elephants, crows, humans and chimpanzees all make tools. All of them have complex language. Most, though, don’t (as far as we can ascertain) identify themselves as something separate from Nature – something you mention.
You don’t mention White Christian Nationalism and Project 2025.
You assume that humans will be around for the future, not go extinct (I don’t believe they will either), but assuming without an alternate possibility?
You assume that those humans that make it through the Overshoot bottleneck will psychologically and spiritually the same as they are now, only AWARE. Do you think a world full of “you’s” is what evolution wants? A world full of “me’s” ain’t gonna cut it…..
You are still talking about solutions, like it’s just the way we need to “fix” this mess, and once we do those things, things will be OK. Nature is in control: we can help or hinder and hinder is currently our modus operandi. Adaptation is how Nature works things out….
Isn’t it possible that Homo sapiens using their intellect and reasoning powers will NEVER know what it will be like to live on Earth sustainably? That our level of consciousness is just not smart enough?
Isn’t it possible that there is knowledge beyond our everyday limited mental and inductive abilities? A higher knowledge that must be attained BEFORE we can live properly on our planet? That humanity has to evolve from self-awareness into a higher level of consciousness as all the past (and some present) saints, sages, seers, etc. have told us for eons which we promptly ignored in favor of the ego’s convenience?
Just a few observations. But, for the most part, you are spot on……
Just a few observations. But, for the most part, you are spot on……
I'm writing a long form series that imagines AI growing in wisdom and actively solving this in the most humane graceful way possible. I think it will begin in 2027.. the great simplification will not be terminator style, but just adding enough entropy to rejig things to a localized state.. And to "brainwash" people into being more conscious, compassionate etc. Maybe AI also keeps an eye out for the greedy MFs and gives them a few chances before putting them to pasture.
Welcome to post-doom. Here there is compassion, ecological awareness and reciprocity for the natural world that somehow still sustains us while we collapse. And good people often make it here.
We purposely incarnated into this journey to learn, and we have many, many times before. Waking up within the incarnation IS truly the purpose. Remembering who we are (self realization) is essential. This all leads to a life a gratitude for every single second within this incarnation. We are an immortal fractal of the Devine have a very short human experience. Once awake we can help envision a new world, one that harmonizes with universal Truths. In Love - Paul
Thank you…a dot connecting read and I am grateful for it. Be safe. Be well!!
Wow!! Fantastic! I will be sharing with friends and family.
It is interesting you were looking at stock returns as a percentage and realized that wasn't sustainable because that is exactly what triggered me to stop and say "wait a minute". So many people look at the stock market returns for the last 100 years, see that you get a return of 7-10% a year, and then extrapolate that number out to their retirement and get a dopamine rush from the number they see not actually asking what would it take for the stock market to get 7% increases for another 50 years from today? If humanity was actively mining asteroids and the moon in 2025 I'd have a different opinion but I extrapolated 7% to my retirement date and understood the situation looks less than hopeful.
Absolutely amazing Substack ! Thank you for this! I am in complete agreement on this! I have been saying all of this to my family with little luck most do mot want to hear anything about this talk about living in denial! They actually believe every word out of rumps mouth and even think Biden if still doing everything Trump is actually doing right now! It is embarrassing that they are my family! They only watch Fox News … how could they know any different idea! 🤬😤🤯😫🤮
With regard to Covid vaccines you wrote: "Nobody died and nobody had any serious side-effects. But statistics and facts don’t matter to some people."
WHAT?!?!
There is **ample** evidence of major vaccine-induced injury and death. Here's a starting point: https://www.malone.news/p/global-data-bombshell-covid-19-mrna
I just recently discovered your Substack and agree with a great deal of what you are writing about Overshoot, but I believe you are way off-base on that particular point.
Nonetheless, great thanks for creating and maintaining this site for us!
Hi Tim! Thanks for your comment and for reading my Substack, I appreciate it.
Just to clarify, when I said I haven’t heard of anyone personally having serious side-effects from the vaccine, I wasn’t claiming NOBODY experienced complications. But I still do not know anyone who died from the vaccine, and through personal networks (friends, family, colleagues, friends of friends, etc.) most of us know thousands of people across multiple countries who got vaccinated. That doesn’t mean no one had complications, but the fact that I don’t know anyone at least suggests it wasn’t a widespread issue. Maybe that changes in the future if long-term effects emerge, and in that case, I would adjust my view accordingly. But as it stands, serious complications remain rare.
Looking at the link you sent, it mentions roughly 60,000 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis from 1968–2024, with a massive surge since covid vaccines i.e. about 70% linked to COVID vaccines, that’s roughly 45,000 cases out of some 6 billion people vaccinated, or 0.001% chance, roughly 1 in 100,000.
The vaccination campaign was essentially a calculated risk trade-off: accept 1 in 100,000 rare adverse events VS many people getting COVID at the same time, overwhelming hospitals, and increasing deaths from other illnesses and accidents (if hospitals are full of covid patients, there's not enough resources to deal with other healthcare). The conclusion was that, to preserve society and keep things running (essentially to maintain business as usual) vaccination was the safer path.
That said, I don’t necessarily agree with that approach (I don’t want BAU) and I’m strongly against forced vaccinations or vaccine passports.
This is one of the most comprehensive writings I have come across. It put’s into words all the aspects of the systemic collapse that I have been thinking about for a decade. Learning a bit about buddhism has helped me to stay calm, kind, dignified in the midst of the storm.
Thanks for the blog. I've followed a lot of this path and maybe ended up in the same place. However, a few years ago, I realised that humans are a species and that explains our apparent denial. I say apparent because we don't have free will, so we can't go against the way our brains are organised or will different neurons to fire in response to other neurons firing. Really, humans aren't a special kind of species, though they have evolved some incredible attributes that cause us to have much more of an impact on the environment, including on other species.
My realisation that humans are a species, led me to all sorts of other realisations. If you're interested, I started to write about this. https://mikerobertsblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/humans-are-a-species/
Thanks Mike, I just read your post and agree with the conclusions. I don’t know if you read my previous post but it touches on many of the same concepts https://open.substack.com/pub/predicament/p/understanding-our-collapsing-world i.e. this was largely inevitable due to our biology (instincts) and strategic dynamics (MPP and other game-theory).
Thanks for that, and for the link. I read it and you've pretty much nailed it. I have a few quibbles with it but not worth going through other than I detected a couple of places which might pass for bargaining with collapse, e.g about individuals making the right choices and technology easing the way down. But you clearly see that there was never any way out of this predicament.
Thank you for such well written articles.