4 ms·

Industrial society is self-terminating.

thaumasiotes 2y ago
Well, if you prefer, there was an indigenous American culture that needed to carry water in leaky natural materials and discovered that this worked a lot better if you coated the inside of a waterskin with tar. They were wiped out by some combination of tar consumption and the rest of their lifestyle. I would suggest that industrial society is less prone to this, mostly because it's larger-scale. There's always someone doing something that will ultimately prove to be a bad idea. You can't know until you try. What you need is to be able to recover from trying.
- benchmarkist 2y ago
  The scale will make the inevitable collapse much more spectacular than any previous one in recorded history. I don't have any strong opinions on tar containers but I doubt it's any worse than whatever people are consuming every day on their food because of ubiquitous use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. Add a few more carcinogens from regular industrial pollution and those natives could be considered to be practically living in paradise compared to their modern counterparts.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    Considering that I have tar flavoured cheddar in fridge(not great). And could get tar flavoured candies from store... I think there is probably lot worse things...
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      It's worth noting that not all substances called "tar" are particularly similar to each other.
      - mrspuratic 2y ago
        Bitumen paint for the inside of concrete water tanks is still a thing. I don't use it for that, but I have used it as a barrier layer on outdoor timber objects, like fence posts, DIY planters and shed floors.
    - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
      > Considering that I have tar flavoured cheddar in fridge(not great). Why did you buy such a thing and also, who makes tar flavoured cheddar (and why)? Personally, I do enjoy a bit of nettle-wrapped Cornish Yarg and there's quite a few cheeses that use ash (Kidderton Ash and Morbier are lovely), but I wouldn't want tar with my cheese.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
  This is why the global dumping of plastic nanoparticles is particularly worrying.

Well, if you prefer, there was an indigenous American culture that needed to carry water in leaky natural materials and discovered that this worked a lot better if you coated the inside of a waterskin with tar. They were wiped out by some combination of tar consumption and the rest of their lifestyle. I would suggest that industrial society is less prone to this, mostly because it's larger-scale. There's always someone doing something that will ultimately prove to be a bad idea. You can't know until you try. What you need is to be able to recover from trying.

benchmarkist 2y ago
The scale will make the inevitable collapse much more spectacular than any previous one in recorded history. I don't have any strong opinions on tar containers but I doubt it's any worse than whatever people are consuming every day on their food because of ubiquitous use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides. Add a few more carcinogens from regular industrial pollution and those natives could be considered to be practically living in paradise compared to their modern counterparts.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  Considering that I have tar flavoured cheddar in fridge(not great). And could get tar flavoured candies from store... I think there is probably lot worse things...
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    It's worth noting that not all substances called "tar" are particularly similar to each other.
    - mrspuratic 2y ago
      Bitumen paint for the inside of concrete water tanks is still a thing. I don't use it for that, but I have used it as a barrier layer on outdoor timber objects, like fence posts, DIY planters and shed floors.
  - ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
    > Considering that I have tar flavoured cheddar in fridge(not great). Why did you buy such a thing and also, who makes tar flavoured cheddar (and why)? Personally, I do enjoy a bit of nettle-wrapped Cornish Yarg and there's quite a few cheeses that use ash (Kidderton Ash and Morbier are lovely), but I wouldn't want tar with my cheese.
ndsipa_pomu 2y ago
This is why the global dumping of plastic nanoparticles is particularly worrying.