Guy McPherson's blog

The agenda revisited

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. (Arthur Schopenhauer, one of my philosophical heroes) ______________________ Based on recent comments in this space, and also in my email in-box, I am compelled to provide an updated overview of my proposed agenda [...]

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If it suddenly ended tomorrow, could you somehow adjust to the fall?

We’ve all played the “what if” game, and specifically the one with a timeline. What if I had six months to live? Would I live differently? Would I see somebody, or some place? How would I “make my peace” with the world and those I love? Let’s kick it up a notch. It’s not one [...]

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The service trap

It is clear that some of us are committed to lives of service, and others are not. I'm sure social scientists have identified myriad patterns to justify our quirky lives, without actually explaining them, much less identifying mechanisms underlying them. And that's just as well, given the magnitude of the task. I'd rather we spend our considerable cognitive surplus on other issues. Consider, for example, how much time we spend tweeting. And then trying to determine if twittering counts at literature. (If you think twit lit is, well, literature, I think you're an idiot. But I digress.) Never mind who's drinking which brand of beer in the White House. We're so absorbed with television and the Internet and who's screwing whom in the world of celebrities, we can't bother to focus on the inordinate suffering we're causing, to humans and other animals. Sixth great extinction, including our own species? Whatev. Solving those problems will simply have to wait until after I get a tattoo proclaiming my independence from mainstream culture.

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Problem solved!

Here's the agenda, to be completed within a year or two: (1) find, develop, and distribute an energy source too cheap to meter, and (2) overcome evolution.

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What I believe

I recognize I'm quick to offend. Continue reading at your own risk.

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Last chance for the hairless monkey?

Our last best chance to make it through the ever-tightening bottleneck is to bring down civilization. Although Peak Oil will bring down civilization within the next decade, maybe sooner, we can and should hasten the collapse along.

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The end of civilization and the extinction of humanity

We have, to the maximum possible extent allowed by our intellect and never-ending desire, consumed the planet and therefore traded in tomorrow for today. And we keep making these choices, every day, choosing dams over salmon, oil over whales, cars over polar bears, death over life.

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Philosophy and Conservation Biology

It is not at all clear that humanity can be saved (or, for that matter, is worth saving). Evolution drives us to breed, drives to procreate, and drives us to accumulate resources. Evolution always pushes us toward the brink, and culture piles on, hurling us into the abyss. Nietzsche was correct about our lack of free will -- as Gray points out in Straw Dogs -- free will is an illusion. It's not merely the foam on the beer: it's the last bubble of foam, the one that just popped. It's no surprise, then, that we are sleepwalking into the future, or that the future is a lethal cliff.

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