How do we get out of here?

[GliderGuider]

9. Here's a question about sharks and population

Given that we are now demonstrably out of balance with the biophysical systems of the planet - i.e. our numbers and activity levels are visibly unsustainable - when was the last time humanity was demonstrably in balance with the planet?

My answer to that question is that the last time I can point to and say with confidence that we were in balance was some time shortly after the invention of agriculture but well before the birth of Christ. The human presence has been one of increasing growth and imbalance ever since that time.

As a result, when I look for a model of human sustainability, I have to look back to that time, and take our numbers and activity levels back then as a limit. We cannot "grow into" sustainability, which is an idea that makes a lot of modern techno-environmentalists extremely uncomfortable.

My understanding of thermodynamics is that its principles make self-organization, the spontaneous appearance of order, and cumulative increases in local complexity absolutely inevitable. They seem to operate at all levels, from the initial appearance of matter out of the energy soup after the Big Bang, through the formation of stars, galaxies and planets, to the appearance of life in ever-more complex forms, right up to the incredible self-organized complexity of modern human culture.

Could you explain your use of the word "reductionist"? Because it doesn't seem to apply here.