Big Picture News Flash
News Flash I
Humans are facing the climax of their planetary secession as an expansionistic invasive species on this, our planet for the taking.
We moderns became an expansionist form of human about 50k years ago (the Man the Hunter expansion).
Empowered by agriculture, we transitioned to regional empire building about 5k years ago (the Indo-European expansion).
Empowered by wind, the final conquest of new lands began about 4k years ago (the Austronesian expansion).
The out of Africa expansionists went north (into Eurasia), east to Australia, then to the Americas, and met for the first time in Newfoundland about 1k years ago.
Empowered by wind, wood, horses and steel, Euro expansionists began to subdue prior expansionists around the world about 500 BP (before 1950) to lay the foundations for the first global empire.
Indo-European expansionists meet up with the Polynesian expansionists about 400 years ago in Zealandia.
Empowered by fossil fuels about 300 years ago, the Euro Industrial Revolution expanded to colonize other lands.
Having been empowered by wood and agriculture, the Americas transitioned to fossil fuels about 200 years ago beginning in the north as the Euro empowerment shifted to the Americas about 100 years ago during the Americo phase of empire building.
In the late 20th century the expansion of the modern techno-industrial form of empire shifted to the Sino region, completing the climax of the Euro-Sino Empire in the 21st century.
The future is unknown, but it is not ours to create nor foresee in any details. There are a range of possibilities if humans remain an expansionistic invasive form of animal. The dynamic of expansion (growth) on a finite planet has extinction as the outcome (e.g. a metastatic cancer is not evolvable, and its dynamic determinately selects for its termination).
The future of we expansionists will involve climaxing in the 21st century (>95% chance) followed by descent. If symmetrical, descent will last 50k years. If 5k years, the shape of our trajectory will be ‘shark finned’. If 500 years, then a steeper shark fin. Know that termination of expansion is determinate once humans transition to the downslope.
Alternative is to renormalize as adaptive K-strategists living within self-imposed limits (the existence of technology without limits selects for metastatic growth).
Growth is the best thing ever… for a time. Acquiring foresight intelligence is the change that renormalizing depends on. Understand or die, ye hubris-ones.
Big Picture News Flash II
We humans are facing the climax of our planetary secession as an expansionistic invasive species on this, our planet for the taking.
There is a pathway to a viable form of civilization, but a recognition that the current form of civilization is not viable would have to arise in 1,700 influential, perceived as educated, humans.
No human that could be viewed as educated who fails to serve the empire their existence as credible, likable humans depends, therefore zero can consider the possibility that their form of civilization is not remotely sustainable/viable.
Humans cannot change their trajectory as withdrawal of social approbation is the first death.
Enjoy life while you can.
Big Picture News Flash III
We modern humans are facing the climax of our planetary secession as an expansionistic invasive species on this, our planet for the taking.
Failure to begin to renormalize prior to transitioning to living on the downslope has extinction of humans as likely outcome (or worse).
If 1,700 humans understood why, posterity could persist, as to understand something is to be delivered from it.
There is no evidence that 1,700 humans can understand humanity’s predicament enough to be delivered from it.
Maybe posterity can understand, if we moderns cannot.
So, sorry about that.
