Team Human Can Collapse Benefit Everyone? Luke Kemp: Goliath's Curse
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Oct 8, 2025 
Luke Kemp, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and author of Goliath's Curse, dissects why civilizations crumble. He explores how distributed, cooperative societies often outperform empires, emphasizing resilience throughout history. Kemp contrasts 'Goliath' societies with egalitarian networks, explaining how resource availability fosters dominance. He also discusses how community resilience and democratic structures can combat existential risks, suggesting that even societal collapse can lead to improved wellbeing.
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Ancient Interconnected Egalitarianism
- Human societies were largely egalitarian and highly interconnected for ~300,000 years before dominance hierarchies emerged.
- That long-range reciprocal network likely explains our survival advantage over Neanderthals.
What Fuels Ruling Elites
- Certain resources become 'lootable' and enable elites to extract and store surplus, creating hierarchies.
- Mobility constraints and monopolizable weapons combine with lootable fuel to produce Goliath states.
Layered Evolution Of Empires
- Goliath societies stack new fuels and technologies on old ones to scale domination over larger territories.
- Fossil fuels and data became modern Goliath fuels enabling unprecedented energy and control.
