Anthropocentrism hallucination

Anthropocentrism is the hallucination in society of regarding humans as the central element of the universe. It involves interpreting reality exclusively in terms of human values and experience, often without understanding of what is really happening..

 

There are many examples of how this lack of understanding has led to mistaken attempts to emulate nature in providing services. An example is the installation of desalination plants to provided communities with potable water and or irrigation. The hydrological cycle is how natural forces have use energy from sunshine to supply water in rain and snow for eons with an ecological cost (such as the damage due to floods) that is remedied over time by other natural forces. It has been and will continue to be a major factor in natural operations such as plant growth and organisms operations. 

 

Desalination plants provide potable water by using electrical energy (often from coal fired power stations emitting the greenhouse gases contributing to climate disruption and ocean acidification and warming). Ironically, these plants need cooling water circulated by using electrical energy in their operation. These plants are made of irreplaceable materials and have limited lifetimes so their operation is unsustainable process. So they are an eco costly emulation, not substitution, of the hydrological cycle.

 

That is, they are a common example of the failure of costly technological systems to emulate freely available natural processes. Despite these failings, proponents argue that desalination plants are often justified to meet the range of needs of industrialized civilization when what is freely available from natural operations is insufficient.

 

There is failure to understand that systems such as desalination plants are only temporary expedients. Installing these expedients as the population and infrastructure (and severity of climate change) grow only makes the inevitable collapse of the infrastructure and the die off of the population harder to deal with.

The demise of civilization

A short history of civilization provides insight into developments and what the future will be. Hunter-gather societies made way to farming communities in many regions thousands of years ago as our ancestors became more knowledgeable and acquired better tools. This development occurred at different rates around the globe for a variety of reasons, including the influence of climate. It led to towns as a greater range of skills were acquired and cities followed. An elite led these developments with the workers providing the diversified labor and skills. The needs of the populace increased from food, water, clothing and shelter to gradually embrace the wide range of goods and services that a high proportion of the current global population now take for granted.

Some civilizations carried this development too far. The Sumerians developed a very knowledgeable society but they went too far in their agriculture using irrigation. Salination spoilt the soil so the civilization went into decay despite their advanced culture and now the country is mainly desert. Easter Islanders suffered a similar fate as they used up limited natural resources, partly to build idols. The Norse in Greenland did not learn from the Inuit about how to obtain food in the harsh climate. They employed unsuitable European agriculture while not being able to catch seals.

However, in the main, the global civilization developed although at different rates. Industrialization enabled the use of stored natural resources such as coal and oil to produce the goods and services that became the foundation of a high material standard living for millions in the developed countries. Society embraced this progress without understanding the real cost. The transient material wealth of civilization was being obtained by irreversibly drawing down the natural material wealth that had evolved over eons.

The current infrastructure provides many in the global community with a range of services that are now taken for granted. Well established cities such as London, Paris, New York and Tokyo have a variety range of services used by their residents and visitors almost unthinkingly while many skilled workers use natural resources for their operation and maintenance. Even the newer cities consume vast amount of natural resources and spew out material wastes day by day.

This infrastructure is like a gigantic organism feeding on natural resources and emitting wastes, seemingly without control. The powerful in society continue to proclaim the advantages of economic growth without taking into account the divestment of natural wealth. But natural forces are extracting the price of this exuberance so civilization is entering into its senescence and its demise this century is certain.

It is ironical that current society has not learned anything from the demise of so many previous civilizations. They enthusiastically embrace the wonders of technological innovations without counting the cost or the unintended consequences. Climate change, ocean acidification and the pollution due to toxic wastes

Information overload swamps understanding reality

 The extremely rapid increase in information in recent times due to the phenomenal development of the ability electronics to store vast amounts of information in a digital form and process it at astounding speeds is overwhelming. A few companies, such as Google and Palantir, provide information processing and search services for the community at large as well as for government bodies.

Many people bless this easy access to information and associated visual and aural recordings for entertainment, social discourse, management and education purposes. Others are overwhelmed by the rapidity of the growth of virtual civilization as they find it hard to learn how to handle passwords and the many other novel essential issues to be crammed into the memory.

The media makes a lot of how scientists are advancing the frontiers of knowledge often with the help of the greatly improved ability to handle vast amounts of information, control major experiments and run complex mathematical models. There is no doubt that science and technology has underpinned the high standard of living that many people now enjoy.

However, society has a myopic view of the development of civilization. They welcome the advances without really understanding of how it has come about. The reality is that the systems of civilization irreversibly use up limited natural resources and produce irrevocable waste during their limited life time. Technology only makes use of natural forces to produce goods and services. It has never created any material even when it has enabled the production of many novel items that society happily use without understanding the basic physical principle limiting what civilization can deliver.

Ironically, the information revolution is not helping society to gain the wisdom of knowing that the operation of civilization is unsustainable. The vast amount and complexity of this information hides the simple physical principle that the demise of industrial civilization is certain within this century. And scientists are so preoccupied with their specialties that they do not provide the populace with understanding of the holistic malaise that is the operation of industrial civilization. The slow awakening to the damaging impact of using fossil fuels to supply energy is now awakening society to some extent. Irreversible rapid climate change is one unintended consequence of that lack of understanding.

The depressing way ahead

The operations of the systems of civilization irreversibly use up limited natural material resources and produce irrevocable material wastes as well as devastating the eco systems. It does this in order to provide society with the goods and services people covert. This supply is an unsustainable process although society does not recognize that fact. It is the malaise of civilization. The decline in the availability of a wide range of natural resources coupled with the adverse response of natural forces, such as climate change, are symptoms of this holistic malaise.

The question raised by informed people is what will encourage society to moderate the rate of this ravishing of the life support system. There is much discussion of various aspects of the endemic decision making process. The competing influence of capitalism and socialism is just one of the issues debated. However, the inherent objective of organisms to make the most of what is available does not appear to gain the consideration that is warranted. Humans have the advantage over other organisms in that they have devised tools that give them great leverage to satisfy their desire for a high material standard of living - without taking into account the ecological cost.

Society will continue to make decisions to realize possibilities as much as they can. That is an unalterable fundamental characteristic of society. Education and other means of influencing the attitude of the elite as well as the masses can do no more than slightly moderate the rate of ravishing by civilization of the foundations. The consequential demise of materialistic civilization is certain. The way ahead for the human denizens is depressing as they join the species extinction legion.  

Clearly, what will happen in the future is that the possibilities that the systems of civilization can use will decline, so forcing society to moderate their decisions. There is still appreciable uncertainty about which issues will force societies in the various regions to power down. The present focus in industrialized countries is energy supply while over population and potable water supply head the list in many other countries. Loss of soil fertility is not yet having the impact that declining fertilizer supply will ensure in the future. However, this uncertainty does not affect the fact that the possible rate of utilization of the combination of natural material wealth is declining rapidly. So the possibility of technological systems to supply society with goods is also declining. People, at best, can make smart decisions to meet the challenge of coping. Some will relearn forgotten fundamental simple skills to provide essentials such as food and community communication but that will not ease the stark reality noticeably for city dwellers in particular.

Freedom to offend

Freedom to offend is a major subject round the world because Muslims are offended by what a few Westerners have been saying about their Prophet. This issue continues to divide Western and Muslim societies with little sign of moderation.

It is ironical that these two branches of society are quarreling as they continue to offend their life support system, Gaia. They misunderstand the role of all homo sapiens in the operation of eco systems.They are able to do this damaging process because Gaia is only slowly responding to the offensive devastation wrought by human society and industrial civilization in recent times. Climate change, ocean acidification, the depleting of natural resources (oil, many minerals as well as fertile soil, potable water), species (other than human) extinction together with bio-diversity and geo-diversity destruction will ensure that society belatedly respond to what it has done wrong.

It is quite likely that the Western and Muslim societies will reduce their quarreling as they try to cope with the stark reality imposed by Gaia.

Denis Frith