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Blogging around 05.10.2009

by Paula | 11 May 2009 | permalink | comments
Tags: news, peak oil
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• Attacked From Within — Anyone putting all their survival eggs in the “community” basket needs to read this article.
  To wit: community doesn’t scale; when community reaches a critical mass of participants it collapses into society; society requires formal regulation and therefore bureaucracy; movement from society to community requires shrinkage.
  This massive article offers potential solutions to online community problems, which may or may not be portable to meatspace communities.
  I do wish people would start discussing the problems of so-called “community” and of group dynamics. “Community” in isolation from economic and other considerations is definitely not the path to a soft landing.

• Carolyn Baker reviews John Michael Greer’s The Long Descent — Old news, but new to me since I generally read neither Greer nor Baker. In her review, Baker deconstructs Greer’s myopic, retarded brand of “denial lite.” (Great taste! Less filling!) It’s heartening to see someone respond to Greer with something other than fawning praise.

• Citizen action restoring passenger rail in the UK — Sweet! A coalition of citizens’ groups are working to restore the New Somerset and Dorset rail lines between Bath and Bournemouth in the UK. There’s tons of room for this sort of thing in the United States, given the great love railroad enthusiasts have for lost railroad glory. Don’t miss the detailed Google map of the New Somerset and Dorset lines.

• Peak Oil for Programmers — Oh my god, I think I’m in love. <swoon /> If you make your living writing code you cannot afford to miss this post, and probably this blog as it gets rolling. The takeaway: if programmers don’t start getting visionary you all will soon be out of a job, and the world may go to shit faster than necessary for lack of proper software. I’ve linked here to Part II, Part I is an overview of peak oil.

• Resource Scarcity: What Does It Mean For Business? — from Lloyd’s of London. It’s about time.

• Running On Empty — “The lack of innovation in pop music suggests that we are experiencing an energy crisis in culture at large.” Interesting hypothesis. I would entertain the thought that on a collective unconscious level we all know that things are winding down, and this reality is manifesting in pop culture. On the other hand, it could just be that the internet has dropped distribution costs to zero and the most talented artists are no longer dependent upon the Big Four to make a living.

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