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All of your examples occur in the context of a much less developed and less connected world. Industrialization massively increased its footprint, the computing
by elefanten 6y ago
All of your examples occur in the context of a much less developed and less connected world. Industrialization massively increased its footprint, the computing era began and then the internet era began. These are phase changes to human civilization.
Of course it has a different impact vs essentially subsistence agriculture, as per your midwest yardstick.
- athenot 6y agoThat begs the question: is there a middle ground between fully interconnected and off-the-grid subsustence?
- woofie11 6y agoSilos. Europe is independent. North America is independent. South East Asia is independent. Africa is independent. There are scientific exchanges, humanitarian aide, artistic exchange, coordination on climate change, and similar, grounded in mutual benefit, but not in mutual interdependence. These can be big or small silos. Aside from off-grid living, villages, towns, or countries can be independent. These can also be complete or incomplete. If the tech tree needed for food and transport is local, it's okay if many luxury goods are global.
- woofie11 6y agoWe don't have an infinite pool of human states. We have one history. We don't have examples of modern and unconnected. We do have examples of collapses from too much interconnection and trade. A good example of systemic collapse of this sort, from another point in human history, is Late Bronze Age collapse circe 1150BC. There were complex, structured societies which were pretty efficient for the time, due to trade and specialization. All of the major cultures were wiped out, all at about the same time, when those structures broke down.