The Ecotechnic Future ~ John Michael Greer

John Michael Greer on the future of a World without oil. In response to the coming impact of peak oil, John's 2009 book The Ecotechnic Future helps us envision the transition from an industrial society to a sustainable ecotechnic world -- not returning to the past, but creating a society that supports relatively advanced technology on a sustainable resource base.




Topics discussed include: peak oil, the energy crisis, the myth of progress, the myth of apocalypse, societal collapse, abiotic oil, zero point energy, 2012 and political, economic and cultural disintegration.

Fusing human ecology and history, The Ecotechnic Future challenges assumptions held by mainstream and alternative thinkers about the evolution of human societies. Human societies, like ecosystems, evolve in complex and unpredictable ways, making it futile to try to impose rigid ideological forms on the patterns of evolutionary change. Instead, social change must explore many pathways over which we have no control.

The troubling and exhilarating prospect of an open-ended future, he proposes, requires dissensus -- a deliberate acceptance of radical diversity that widens the range of potential approaches to infinity. For anyone concerned about peak oil and the future of industrial society, The Ecotechnic Future provides a solid analysis of how we got to where we are and offers a practical toolkit to prepare for the future.

John is a certified Master Conserver, organic gardener, and scholar of ecological history. The current Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), his widely-cited blog, The Archdruid Report (thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com) deals with peak oil, amongst other issues.

Apocalypse Not ~ John Michael Greer

Date: 11-23-11
Host: George Noory
Guests: John Michael Greer

Appearing during the middle two hours, longtime researcher and explorer in alternative realities, John Michael Greer, discussed his new work demonstrating how history has proven that apocalyptic and revolutionary notions such as the Rapture and the Singularity will never happen, but can be used to control the masses. When people become convinced that the world is going to end on a specific date (most recently Harold Camping), "they're facing a world of disappointment, consistently, every single time," he commented.

Noteworthy about various apocalypse myths is what happens afterward-- typically "somebody's fondest daydream," such as "we're going to be raptured to heaven and then watch everyone who's ever made fun of us get the crap stomped out of them," or the landing of Space Brothers who give us free energy, and whisk us away on their spaceships, Greer outlined.

Notions of the apocalypse can be used to distract the populace from political or economic issues, he suggested, adding that the more stressed out a society is, the more likely people will turn to apocalyptic scenarios, as a kind of relief. Regarding the Mayan calendar ending in Dec. 21 2012-- "The ancient Mayans didn't actually predict that anything in particular was going to happen on that date," it's just one of many dates, or rollovers in their complicated calendar system which has all kinds of cycles that finish at different times, he explained. The Mayans weren't waiting for the Apocalypse, he continued, but the end date of 12/21/12 caught the popular imagination in recent years, and people have been grafting various cataclysmic scenarios on to it since then.