250. Tackling ‘Big History’ feat. Ian Morris<br /> unSILOed Podcast with Greg LaBlanc
- Most of human history and evolution is about energy capture.
- Investing 80x energy into land to get 4x output from it has been transformational for modern farmers. (Turning oil into bread.)
- Marshall Sahlins - synopsis: agriculture is a really bad idea.
- Morris Theorem: human history is driven by lazy, greedy people.
- "Fossil fuel values" (00:39:00)
- fairness is a fundamental human value; justice is dramatically different across time and space (00:45:08)
- Morris' "5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (the five problems humans encounter when they reach the limits of energy extraction): massive movements of people (mobility); epidemics; climate change; war; governmental collapses;
- The price of overhunting for one person versus the price for the collective. How do we solve these collective problems (particularly for lazy, greedy humans)? (00:52:35)
- Regional failures were the general pattern before; now failures are a global scale problem.
- Morris' explanation of Brexit based on his Big History thesis as one of how Britain maintains power with respect to both China and Europe. (01:05:40)