I learned last week that becoming powerful has measurable neurological effects on your ability to empathize.
Listen to this fascinating episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain on “The Perils of Power”.
If you have a Harvard Business Review subscription there is a long article in the October 2016 edition called “Don’t let power corrupt you”.
Sci-Fi author David Brin links to a great project – Open Source Ecology :
Following the DIY “maker” trend, one ad-hoc group is producing open source modular plans to the 50 different industrial machines necessary to build a civilization — or at least provide a self-sustaining village with basic comforts. The basic fifty include: backhoe, bulldozer, baler, wind turbine, cement mixer, electric motor, steam engine, dairy milker, baker oven, aluminum extractor from clay, and bioplastic extruder, among others. The more complicated ones build upon the simpler ones. In northern Missouri, they have used their compressed brick press and tractor to build a manufacturing facility to construct more models.
The founder, Marchin Jabukowski (TED Senior Fellow) is a Physics Ph.D., who dropped out to work on this project. His orientation is post-scarcity society rather than disaster, but if one were wanting to create a generalized resiliency rather than prepare for specific movie scenario plots, it would be a good place to start. See his TED talk: Open Sourced Blueprints for Civilization .
And now, Open Source Ecology is teaming with WikiSpeed to build an open source, modular, configurable car with high fuel efficiency that meets U.S. safety standards.
The 2012 hippies are making everyone jumpy about societal collapse and the collapsitarian movement is still growing. Just yesterday I got a memo from Neil “The Game” Strauss with 13 hacks to survive a disaster.
I am not immune. I track this stuff….
More on prepper life and skills to rebuild civilization:
The Long Now Foundation’s Manual for Civilization series
This includes Lewis Dartnell at The Interval: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch
Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready – NY Times
Apocalypse Ciao: Let the End Times Roll – Mother Jones
