August 19, 2012   |   0 comments

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 deals with peak oil, among other issues.

Previous interview: John Michael Greer – The Long Descent

Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’
Klaus Schulze ‘Things to Come’