A Blueprint For Disaster In Any Society

Technology Has To Be Invented Or Adopted.

Twelve Thousand Years Ago, Everybody On Earth Was A Hunter-gatherer; Now Almost All Of Us Are Farmers Or Else Are Fed By Farmers. The Spread Of Farming From Those Few Sites Of Origin Usually Did Not Occur As A Result Of The Hunter-gatherers' Elsewhere Adopting Farming; Hunter-gatherers Tend To Be Conservative.... Instead, Farming Spread Mainly Through Farmers' Outbreeding Hunters, Developing More Potent Technology, And Then Killing The Hunters Or Driving Them Off Of All Lands Suitable For Agriculture.

In Contrast [to Trees And Fish], Oil, Metals, And Coal Are Not Renewable; They Don't Reproduce, Sprout, Or Have Sex To Produce Baby Oil Droplets Or Coal Nuggets.

All Human Societies Go Through Fads In Which They Temporarily Either Adopt Practices Of Little Use Or Else Abandon Practices Of Considerable Use.

History As Well As Life Itself Is Complicated -- Neither Life Nor History Is An Enterprise For Those Who Seek Simplicity And Consistency.