Fossil fuels powered the industrial revolution, but innovations in chemistry played the key role in making materials stronger, cheaper and more convenient. In the twentieth century, fossil fuels (petrochemicals) served as the inputs for the invention of synthetic materials from plastics to polyester and beyond. These synthetics are now ubiquitous in modern industrial society, having […]
How to Dialogue With Those Holding Opposing Views A century ago, Sigmund Freud published one his most influential books, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930).The key concept was that primitive human desires were necessarily at odds with the demands of civilization aimed at the well-being of the entire community. This civilizing influence gives rise to a […]
Charting the Past and Future Transformations of our Housing InfrastructureBy George Gantz, for Long Now Boston, September 12, 2018 While we often think of cities in terms of skylines, business activity and public buildings or monuments, their primary function is the housing of people. The patterns and forms of that housing are critical to the […]
While the impact of human activity on the global climate is getting a lot of attention, the direct impact of humans on the global biosphere is not. A new Biomass Assessment studypublished recently by Yinon Bar-On, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and others, may change that. It seems that the biosphere the human species […]
Cosmologists, astronomers and others have wondered for many decades, why is there no sign of any extraterrestrial civilization? We have been looking and probing the expanse of our universe with ever more accurate instruments. The consensus is that an immense number of earth-like planets suitable for life populate the heavens. Yet we have found no […]
