In 1988, Joseph Tainter published “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” in which he published a prescient and simple argument with far-reaching implications:
1) Social complexity is a problem-solving mechanism.
2) Complexity has costs in terms of energy.
3) Societies tend to add rather than subtract complexity when facing new problems.
4) Complexity often reaches a point of diminishing marginal returns in relation to its energy costs.
5) When societies reach this point of diminishing returns, they are vulnerable to collapse to a simpler level of social organization, which is an economizing reaction to problems that can no longer be solved by adding more complexity.
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@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social I think you’re conflating complexity and authoritarianism, or complexity with capitalism, which are both bad ways to think about those concepts.
@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social I think you’re conflating complexity and authoritarianism, or complexity with capitalism, which are both bad ways to think about those concepts.