This 32 minute animation -in 4 Acts – describes the backdrop for The Great Simplification – an economic/cultural transition beginning in the not-too-distant future.
We made this movie, originally as a framing ‘teaser’ for the new podcast thegreatsimplification.com, but the project….expanded over time.
Part 1 describes how our species got to this point, and the role of energy in our economies
Part 2 gives an overview of the relationship between energy, technology, money and the environment and how global human society is (currently) akin to a metabolic heat engine
Part 3 gives an overview of individual (and aggregate) human behavior tendencies in a novel modern environment and why these dynamics are relevant to our current challenges
Part 4 describes how people look at the future wearing different popular lenses, but when wearing a ‘systems’ lens, it becomes clear that a Great Simplification is soon approaching.
There are show notes pinned in the comments and also at thegreatsimplification.com
Please subscribe to this channel or the podcast for more content and context about what we can do to meet the future halfway.
Here are show notes and references hosted on the podcast site: thegreatsimplification.com
Here are show notes and references hosted on the podcast site: thegreatsimplification.com
I believe Nate is one of the top five objective voices on the climate/societal catastrophy occurring.
This is what we call, a Theory of Everything. To arrive at a point of choosing simpler lives, not pursuing endless technological innovation that separates us from nature evermore, seems like a point of coming full circle, a hero’s journey, a call to home. That’s enough to wake me up, and set me on a different path. I only see a little bit of it with each step, but even so, something tells me it is the most fundamental path towards the highest good I could take in this life.
The most concise big picture and call to action I’ve seen – a tremendous synthesis of our predicament thank you Nate, I look forward to sharing this with my peer group.
Thank you for this great contribution. There is much to unpack and integrate. I am in awe.
Speechless to the awareness this can bring to many.
Much gratitude.
In a way our energy blindness is a bit like memory loss and magical thinking
