Progonosis of a failing organism

We have understanding of how organisms, including human beings, operate as they grow to maturity then senescence leads to inevitable demise. Of course, medical people have much greater understanding of the detail including the role of the multitude of cells that control operations in the organism. The mechanism is an extraordinary extremely complex operation that has evolved naturally. It is a phenomenon that we tend to take for granted except in the relatively rare cases when the program goes wrong to a small extent. Cancer is a localized mutation that causes a degree of concern while the vast majority of cells in the organism get on with their prescribed job during their short lifetimes.

This behavior of organic organisms is common knowledge. However, the existence of a vast inorganic organism having many similar characteristics is not widely help. James Lovelock has over the years provided sufficient argument to convince knowledgeable people that the ecosystem is a gigantic inorganic organism with operation controlled by the interaction of a host of organic and inorganic processes. It has been given the name, Gaia. Its operation is similar in some respects to that of natural biological organisms. A wide range of natural processes emulate the role of cells in biological organisms.

Civilization is also a vast organism we can call Tityas, the delinquent son of Gaia. It is growing rapidly as its multitude of human beings use a variety of tools to act like cells. But, unlike the cells in natural organisms, these cells are not programmed to carry out specialized constructive operations. Many of them do but there are sufficient rogues to foster irrevocable obesity of the organism. Intangible money flow is the life blood of this organism even though it is often contaminated by greed. The cells in under developed regions of this organism are vainly striving to attain healthy operations while those in over developed regions continue their cancerous malfeasance. The organism is entering its senescence with few cells operating benignly. The inevitable demise of civilization will entail a die off of much of the population coupled with disintegration of much of the infrastructure that provides them with goods and services.

The only treatment for the disease this organism is suffering from is for the Earth's Lodgers' Activity Management (ELAM) movement's large dose of understanding influencing the operation of a high proportion of the cells of Tityas. Is there hope of this treatment eventuating?

Imaginery wealth

Many people in developed countries have seen circumstances make money rapidly for them. They have become wealthy through the creation of fiat money rather than by their know how of physical efforts. Financial commentators argue that the growth of sovereign debt in many countries is a boom that is bound to bust. But the well off in society are living the day with their wealth which, despite the protestations that it is only fiat money, is still able to pay for their desires. It is real wealth as far as they are concerned as they indulge in tours to foreign lands, lapping up the sales that plague TV, live in McMansions, drive SUVs and glorify showing off their high material standard of living. It helps their self esteem to be able to show that they have made it. They do not understand that they are parasites feeding off natural resource
wealth without society paying for it.

Governments do their utmost to foster economic growth as it encourages full employment and their return to lucrative office. Businesses compete in their ability to sell goods and services so as to make money for their managers and shareholders. They build skyscrapers, housing estates, freeways, tunnels and other infrastructure by irrevocably using up limited natural resources.These powerful bodies lead the way in the ravishing of our life support system

Even scientists who strive hard to gain understanding in their particular field are victims of this rapacious disease. Climatologists fly to far off places to make measurements of aspects of climate change they can report on in peer-reviewed papers, so making their own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions! Government specialists fly to conferences so they can convey to like contributors their findings of what is going wrong in their field.

Many informed people know how numerous past civilizations collapsed. The ruins of cities in central America, Asia and the Middle East provide anthropologists with insight into what happened. Some authors have provided sound argument for the demise of our industrialized civilization. But the masses are uninformed and the elite have the irrational belief that the leverage of their money will ease their powering down. So it is still full steam ahead for the vast global population and the operation of the infrastructure it is so dependent on as the cliff gets closer. It is almost as though society is determined to go out with a flourish, the wish of addictives as their demise looms.

Information impotence

Society is becoming besotted with the exponential growth of information. The innovators of the devices that store and communicate the vast amount of information are revered. Many people, especially the young, want to have the latest versions of these devices. Desk top computers are now regarded as ancient relics. However, society does not take into account three fundamental issues that will ensure that the information revolution is unsustainable. The demise of the copious information era this century is certain, despite all the contrary hype.

The intangible information is always stored and communicated by tangible devices and systems made of mined materials by the use of natural forces. This has always been the case and will always be the case, even in the distant future when few of these devices are still around. Despite the general view that people have been clever to invent the technology that is the basis of the information revolution, all they have done is use some natural forces in a novel fashion. Most people think some clever people developed electricity but all they did was invent machines to generate electricity using natural forces. Nature has been producing electricity for eons. Lightning provides us with reminders of the power of these natural forces. The materials used in the manufacture of these devices has been mined  but many of the deposits are running out. Some of these materials are being recycled but most of them are ending there short lives in land fill.

The second issue is that most of the information is misleading, wrong or useless. Nature provides sound information in seeds that enable the replenishment of a vast range of organisms from trees through to humans. Humans have used misleading information to generate technology without taking into account the deleterious consequences, such as climate change. The information about monetary forces is wrong as it does not take into account the ecological costs of the activities financed. The economic growth that this information promotes is not sustainable, as society at large will learn the hard way in coming decades. The bewildered masses will wonder how the political leaders got their information so wrong. They will find that most of the information they have been fed is useless as they try to cope with the inevitable powering down.

Education involves the transfer of information. Most of this information transfer is aimed at providing students with the know how to operate in society. The information that teaches people how to relate with others, do useful things such a grow food and how to contribute to community activities is very useful. People are now addicted to getting information from such sources as TV without thinking through its usefulness. They are sold the benefits of having a car or going on overseas tours without the being informed

Lament

I am old and my time is drawing to a close . Family and friends may lament my passing but it will not be a noteworthy event in the affairs of society. On the other hand, Tityas is in its senescence, unbeknown to most, and its demise this century is certain, to the mortification of its denizens, rich and poor, but particularly for the latter. Tityas is the vast organism consisting of cities and associated infrastructure and machines that provides the goods and services of the demanding human population. Many of the survivors  of the demise of Tityas will lament the disintegration of the cities and the disappearance of most of the services on which they had become so dependent. They will have to learn how to make do with only those services that Gaia has provided for ages. Gaia is the vast natural organism that has evolved over eons and will continue to do so after Tityas’ demise, despite the harm done by Tityas. Billions of those born in undeveloped countries will not survive Tityas’ decline because of lack of food, potable water, sanitation and basic health services that money provides.

I am a registered organ donor so that when I pass on some of those parts of my body that are still functioning can be used to boost the health of ailing people. It is doubtful that my brain will be used in that manner. That is a pity as I have garnered appreciable understanding of what society has done wrong. I know why the demise of Tityas is certain.  Ironically, the vast amount of my writing on this subject is stored electronically so it has no brighter future than my brain! All the electronic gear that is the latest boom of the young of society is made using aptly named rare earth materials and has the limited lives common to all technological systems.

Tityas is unwisely growing exponentially at this stage as it feeds on declining natural material capital under the stimulus of the flow of intangible fiat money. Cities are sprouting up in the developing countries while the old-time leaders, London, Paris, Rome, Athens, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo struggle to keep up in their senescence.  The concentrated energy from fossil fuels that has been Tityas’ life blood in its adolescence has come at the unforeseen cost of causing rapid climate change and has had numerous other unintended consequences. The emerging decline in the availability of energy and numerous irreplaceable material resources will hasten the aging of the many components of the infrastructure that comprises Tityas. What use will skyscrapers be when there is not enough electricity to power their elevators? Traffic congestion on freeways will become a past nightmare due not only to the declining availability of fuel but cars are made out of materials that are also running out.

---

Two worlds

Stephen Hawking, the renowned scientist, discussed in a TV presentation the role of the human mind. In his view, the world exists in the human mind. His view is understandable as he has used his mind to obtain understanding of cosmic developments from the Big Bang. It is a common view as most people think in terms of their personal experience and what they are aware of through the various forms of education and communication. That is their subjective world, Myopia, and it governs the decisions they make.

 The subjective world is a myopic, intangible world developed by Homo sapiens by their limited understanding of how the tangible Real materialistic world  has operated for eons. This other world, the objective world has been run by natural.forces during evolution of Gaia, runs what is happening now as the edifice of civilization, Tityas, grows and will continue to run operations after the demise of this materialistic civilization, which has been built on unsustainable foundations.

It is fascinating that everyone accepts that they operate in two modes yet they believe that the world essentially operates in one. They know that they can decide in their mind to eat and their mind has a degree of control of the eating process. But the body takes over the central role. Metabolism controls digestion as part of the functioning of the body mode throughout its lifetime. The rich can be more selective of their food and benefit from better health care but their demise is as certain as it is for the poor.

The operation of civilization, Tityas, is no different in principle to that of any organism. People (the mind) make decisions about doing what is possible. Money has a major influence on the decision process. Natural forces (metabolism) alone determines what subsequently happens. Money does not make the rich immortal. Money will not stop the senescence of civilization as many natural resources run out.

Society will continue to live in their dream world, Myopia, only until Real sends sufficient calls to wake them up to what has gone wrong. Climate change and declining supplies of energy, food and water are already providing symptoms of the holistic malaise to the rapacious hordes. They will find it hard to power down as the cities and other components of Tityas crumble due to lack of the natural resources needed  for their operation and maintenance.

Truth and certainty

Many commentators on the global economic and ecological scene wishfully call for truth and certainty. Is it a bull market or is it a bear market? Will the bail out of Greece (or Spain or Italy or California) work? Is the Chinese economy peaking? Will India be able to manage the common power failures? Will the current US drought do irreparable damage to world food production? Is there any way to stop global warming?

Many pundits address the pros and cons of all these issues. Confusion reigns! Complexity grows and resilience declines. The bewildered masses strive to make do despite the apparent uncertainty engendered by all the blather. They are at a loss because they have not been told the truth.
This is not surprising because the natural forces that control what happens do not have a voice. They have just acted for eons, despite that actions of human technological tools irreversibly drawing down on the limited natural material capital. As a consequence, the truth is the certainty this century of demise of industrialized civilization. No rhetoric, no decisions, of humanity can change that destiny.

Denis Frith

Senescence of the Anthropocene era

Humankind has made decisions that have had a major impact on Earth's ecosystems in recent geological times by making unwise use of irreplaceable natural material resources. Climate change and the pollution of land, sea, air and organisms, including humans,  are some of the unintended consequences.

This unsustainable process is being termed the Anthropocene era. The exponential growth of Tityas, materialistic civilization - the machinery, cars, ships, aircraft, buildings, roads, railways, ports, airports, cities - to provide humankind with goods and services is out of control by humans but not of natural forces. This unsustainable tangible process has been driven by the delusions of the powerful in society with the aid of intangible money, damaging science and technology together with the support of the unknowing consumers. They are all in denial of the reality of how materialistic systems really operate. They glory in financial wealth as their mechanistic systems irrevocably destroy natural material wealth.

Tityas is an organism that is now entering into its senescence. Its components are irreversibly aging under the impact of natural forces as their sustenance, particularly those supplying energy, becomes scarcer. The hallucination about the ability of life-limited technological systems to tackle emerging problems will become a nightmare. The future demise of Tityas in the geological short term is certain. The power of the elite will decline as their money and tools becomes impotent. Developing countries will emulate the senescence of developed countries. The Anthopocene era will end with the surviving, bewildered humankind wondering what went wrong.