Terracide and the Terrarists Destroying the Planet for Record Profits

[GliderGuider]

9. No, the system can't be changed.

IMO this is because the system and its operation are both shaped by a little-appreciated aspect of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which, like gravity, is kind of unidirectional. That law mandates ongoing growth in open systems until they encounter some external limit. Our brains have evolved to be the best limit-removers yet known. As a result I expect the the continuing growth of civilization in size, energy use and hierarchic complexity, as well the entropy it creates in the environment, until we hit a limit we can't defeat.

In this view it doesn't really matter if the system components are seen as evil or benign. It also means that we can't simply introduce arbitrary changes into the system and have them work - especially not if they go against the inherent tendency towards growth. This isn't a political or moral or even a practical position, it's one based on systems science and thermodynamics. It also means we can't limit the system's overall growth from the inside, as much as we might wish we could or fantasize that we can. We can hobble pieces of it - maybe - but not the whole thing.

As well, there can be no transition to a sustainable system, because in presence of free energy and the absence of external limits to growth there is no such thing.