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Sustainable Future Self-sufficient towns?
Elon has suggested the vision of a "sustainable future"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkManNuuYog
This is a technology-maximized future. However, in the book
"This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the end of Empire - and what lies beyond"
we find that there are 3 likely near-term endgames for society
(1) This civilisation could collapse utterly and terminally, as a result
of climatic instability (leading for instance to catastrophic food short-
ages as a probable mechanism of collapse), or possibly sooner than
that, through nuclear war, pandemic, or financial collapse leading
to mass civil breakdown. Any of these are likely to be precipitated in
part by ecological/climate instability, as Darfur and Syria were. Or
(2) This civilisation (we) will manage to seed a future successor-civil-
isation(s), as this one collapses. Or
(3) This civilisation will somehow manage to transform itself delib-
erately, radically and rapidly, in an unprecedented manner, in time
to avert collapse.
The second option basically amounts to designing future towns that
are self-sufficient based on local production and consumption, perhaps
with trading skills with nearby towns. The towns could not rely on any
form of support they could not maintain. This includes virtually all
electronics.
It would be interesting to construct "guidelines" for structuring
a self-sustaining town.
For example, constructing a mechanical windmill that pumps water
to a man-made lake on very high ground. This is made from simple
technology (iron for pipes, geo-engineering, etc). It feeds a
simple filtration system constructed from rocks and soil. Deep
drilled holes could provide heated water. A food and barter economy
would prevail, etc.
Thoughts?
- bigyabai 2y agohttps://youtu.be/mzddAYYDZkk https://youtu.be/mzddAYYDZkk
- daly 2y agoAh, finally a blueprint we can use!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hnthrowaway0315 2y agoIt's a good question and I have been thinking about it recently. I think the biggest challenge is: if civilization does fall, e.g. due to a massive virus outbreak, and not enough people know how to produce industrialized products locally, it's going to be very tough. So the immediately urgency is to bring some industries back.
- daly 2y agoI'm thinking of "published designs" for communities which detail the necessary and sufficient items required for "mostly" self-sustainability. The hope is to provide guidance for town planning. A return to local farms, animal labor, barter economics, cooperation, etc. would be the basis for a model. On the other hand we have a lot more refined materials readily available such as aluminum, copper, steel, etc. This used to be true historically.
- Zigurd 2y agoThe odds are so steep against you being alive to participate in such a future that investing time in preparing for it seems wasteful.
- daly 2y agoProbably. But I have children who might benefit.
- gnz11 2y agoSounds like you are describing the Amish who have been doing this for a long time.
- daly 2y agoThat's an interesting place to investigate. The Amish don't seem to depend on technology they can't create and they tend to develop their own food source. I'll look into it further. Thanks.
- a_tartaruga 2y agoThis is a good resource http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/