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Authors: Richard Heinberg
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efforts, which amounted to nothing less than the regimentation of the human imagination according to the demands of the industrial system.
George Stephensonâs âRocket,â built in 1829, was the worldâs first steam locomotive, which opened the way to fossil-fueled travel and transport.
Since women were now needed both as consumers and workers
in order to continue the perpetual expansion of that system, feminism (via the destruction of old domestic roles and the promotion of new ambitions and consumer tastes) became an inevitable byproduct.
In short, just as we would predict on the basis of the theory of infrastructural determinism, when fossil fuels deeply altered humanityâs means of obtaining sustenance from the Earth, everything about human society changed â from child rearing to politics; from cultural myths to personal dreams.
Of course, many of these changes were destructive both of people and nature. And so, while many of the political struggles of the 20 th century centered on questions of the distribution of power and wealth (as had been the case since the first agricultural surpluses were laid aside over 7,000 years ago), many of those struggles also grew from efforts to control technologyâs caustic impacts, which were linked by social critics both to tools themselves and to peopleâs attitudes toward them.
This cover of Modern Mechanix and Inventions from June, 1936, typifies the techno-optimism of the mid-20 th century.
Technological politics focused on a range of issues: nuclear weapons and nuclear power, polluting chemicals, ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons, greenhouse gases, and the genetic engineering of food, to name only a few familiar examples. The most radical of the techno-critics were inspired by the writings of anthropologists such as Stanley Diamond, who evinced profound admiration for the worldâs remaining hunter-gatherers. For the anarchoprimitivist philosopher John Zerzan, all technology is damaging, debauched, destructive, and demeaning, and only a return to our
primordial, pre-linguistic, pre-technic condition will enable us to recover fully our innate freedom and spontaneity. 7
On the other hand, techno-optimists proclaimed that humanity was in the process of overthrowing age-old limits of every kind â to population growth, levels of consumption, ease of movement, quickness of communication, access to information, and so on.
But the techno-critics and the techno-boosters, from the mildest to the most extreme, have all tended to assume that, for decades hence, barring intervention, humanity will pursue a continued trajectory of technological change: the only thing that could thwart this ongoing âprogressâ would be the awakening of a new moral sensibility (misplaced, in the view of the techno-boosters) leading humans to reject technology, entirely or in part.
Peak Oil and the Limits of Technology
With the discourse on Peak Oil that has commenced since the beginning of the new millennium has come a focus on energy as the determining factor in social evolution â rather than technology per se, or ideas, or political struggles. And with that shift has also come the sense that resource limits will eventually drive basic cultural change â rather than moral persuasion, mass enlightenment, or some new invention.
As oil and gas prices rise, signaling the start of the peaking period, we continue to see the rollout of new inventions in the form of the latest iPhone, the next generation of nuclear bombs, improved surveillance tools, and so on. However, there is also evidence that the stream of new inventions, like the global stream of oil, is starting to dry up.
Physicist Jonathan Huebner of the Pentagonâs Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, has for several years been studying the pace of technological change and invention, using innovations catalogued in The History of Science and Technology. After applying
George Stephensonâs âRocket,â built in 1829, was the worldâs first steam locomotive, which opened the way to fossil-fueled travel and transport.
Since women were now needed both as consumers and workers
in order to continue the perpetual expansion of that system, feminism (via the destruction of old domestic roles and the promotion of new ambitions and consumer tastes) became an inevitable byproduct.
In short, just as we would predict on the basis of the theory of infrastructural determinism, when fossil fuels deeply altered humanityâs means of obtaining sustenance from the Earth, everything about human society changed â from child rearing to politics; from cultural myths to personal dreams.
Of course, many of these changes were destructive both of people and nature. And so, while many of the political struggles of the 20 th century centered on questions of the distribution of power and wealth (as had been the case since the first agricultural surpluses were laid aside over 7,000 years ago), many of those struggles also grew from efforts to control technologyâs caustic impacts, which were linked by social critics both to tools themselves and to peopleâs attitudes toward them.
This cover of Modern Mechanix and Inventions from June, 1936, typifies the techno-optimism of the mid-20 th century.
Technological politics focused on a range of issues: nuclear weapons and nuclear power, polluting chemicals, ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons, greenhouse gases, and the genetic engineering of food, to name only a few familiar examples. The most radical of the techno-critics were inspired by the writings of anthropologists such as Stanley Diamond, who evinced profound admiration for the worldâs remaining hunter-gatherers. For the anarchoprimitivist philosopher John Zerzan, all technology is damaging, debauched, destructive, and demeaning, and only a return to our
primordial, pre-linguistic, pre-technic condition will enable us to recover fully our innate freedom and spontaneity. 7
On the other hand, techno-optimists proclaimed that humanity was in the process of overthrowing age-old limits of every kind â to population growth, levels of consumption, ease of movement, quickness of communication, access to information, and so on.
But the techno-critics and the techno-boosters, from the mildest to the most extreme, have all tended to assume that, for decades hence, barring intervention, humanity will pursue a continued trajectory of technological change: the only thing that could thwart this ongoing âprogressâ would be the awakening of a new moral sensibility (misplaced, in the view of the techno-boosters) leading humans to reject technology, entirely or in part.
Peak Oil and the Limits of Technology
With the discourse on Peak Oil that has commenced since the beginning of the new millennium has come a focus on energy as the determining factor in social evolution â rather than technology per se, or ideas, or political struggles. And with that shift has also come the sense that resource limits will eventually drive basic cultural change â rather than moral persuasion, mass enlightenment, or some new invention.
As oil and gas prices rise, signaling the start of the peaking period, we continue to see the rollout of new inventions in the form of the latest iPhone, the next generation of nuclear bombs, improved surveillance tools, and so on. However, there is also evidence that the stream of new inventions, like the global stream of oil, is starting to dry up.
Physicist Jonathan Huebner of the Pentagonâs Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California, has for several years been studying the pace of technological change and invention, using innovations catalogued in The History of Science and Technology. After applying
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