Daniel Schmachtenberger: “Bend not Break #4: Modeling the Drivers of the Metacrisis”

In this fourth installment of conversations with Daniel Schmachtenberger, we dive deeper into the nuances of humans using energy, materials and technology. Human’s ability to develop and use tools is one of our greatest strengths – yet has also led to increasing destruction of the natural world. How does technology intensify the binding effects of a world order based on growth? Is there any way out – or could global solutions just make the problem worse?

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00:40 – Daniel Schmachtenberger info + TGS episodes part 1 and part 2 and part 3 + Overview of Nate’s story: Animated videos, Economics for the Future – Beyond the Superorganism

03:02Maximum Power Principle

05:13Superorganism

08:13Biodiversity loss, climate change, ocean acidification

11:37Ecological economics + the problems with GDP

14:03Metcalfe’s Law

14:14Limited Liability Company

16:39China taking Tibet, Colonial genocide of Native Americans

21:31Regulation on cigarettes and reduction in people who smoke

21:58Companies knew health effects of smoking for a long time

22:20There is no industry that doesn’t need energy

22:42 CFCs regulation and the ozone

25:42Germany importing coal and cutting down old-growth forests

26:26Brazil cutting down rainforests for soybean industry

39:31 Pareto Distribution

41:41If you factored in the cost of all externalities, no industry would be profitable

46:20Mutation and evolution

48:45 Other animals use tools

50:05 Humans are able to use abstractions to develop tools

52:08 Humans are ultrasocial

52:15Jonathan Haidt The Righteous Mind

54:04Dunbar’s number

56:40Language was a major tool for humans

57:36Agrarian Revolution

1:01:53Pinker and Rosling Narrative

1:02:15Positive, Negative, and Zero Sum

1:05:01 The 4th Industrial Revolution

1:06:05Fossil fuels provide the equivalent of 500 billion human workers

1:06:45 Human population growth

1:09:15The origin of banking, interest, and modern monetary system

1:11:08 Lithium 900% more costly, Olivia Lazard

1:15:08The average American uses 57 barrel of oil equivalents of fossil fuels/year + 17 from finished products imported

1:15:32Online Slave Calculator

1:16:00 Gini Coefficient

1:23:45Group Selection

1:43:15Jevons Paradox

1:46:25Financial musical chairs moment

1:47:28 Human migration is fixed from climate effects

1:50:25Francis Fukuyama and others – Russia collapse isn’t far away

1:52:38We use social sorting mechanisms to solve physical world problems

1:57:42 Lawrence Lessig

1:57:45Rank Choice Voting, Gerrymandering, Campaign Finance Reforms

1:58:15B Corp Legislation

2:05:40 Porcupine Tree