Joe Tainter: “Surplus, Complexity, and Simplification”
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
00:00
The Chicken or the Egg in the Energy Gain Story?
There are occasions in human history when access to energy gain has allowed human societies to grow complex. We think this is normal because we're in a period like that now with our reliance on fossil fuels. Most of the time in human history, complexity grows to solve problems. There's an old nature versus nurture debate. Are humans hardwired by nature? Or do we become who we are through nurture and socialization? Well, the brain imaging studies are showing that in fact this is a false question. It's a false dichotomy.We become essentially hardwired very early in life. This all raises the question: just how much choice do humans have?
Transcript
Play full episode
