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The Solutions that can be Named are not the Solutions

July 29, 2024

Recorded July 23 2024


Description

In this week’s Frankly, Nate addresses the common desire for solutions to the human predicament – and why the championing of “solutions” is less clear-cut than we might perceive.

Effective responses greatly depend on the context of an individual – by highlighting specific ‘solutions’ we narrow the scope of the conversation and exclude creative and empowered humans with different interests and skills.

Additionally, much like nature, the human socio-economic system is adaptive, and rapidly self-adjusts to new information and threats, making novel strategies difficult to implement and disperse at larger scales. As such, simplistic answers that can be publicly shared with millions are probably not going to work. If we zoom out, we see that responses with the potential to shift our systems in a better direction are only possible through emergent processes.

How can we expect to steer towards more humane futures by approaching The Great Simplification with the same ‘quick-fix’ mindset enabled during the Carbon Pulse? What is the role of critical leadership and governance that will be needed in coming decades but is perceived as too radical today? How can we, as both individuals and communities, think about our distinct place within the larger world and how that might shape our unique responses?

Show Notes

PDF Transcript

00:29 – The Reality Party Frankly

01:38 – What is the Human Predicament

03:58 – Infrastructure, Social Structure, Superstructure (Marvin Harris)

09:17 – Ed Conway, TGS Episode

11:09 – Regenerative systems

11:34 – Advance Policy

12:47 – Adaptive systems

13:29 – Buckminster Fuller, military contract work with ICBM arctic domes

14:11 – Adaptive response during 9/11 in the United States

15:07 – Net Zero

16:28 – Laws requiring land use projects that destroy a wetland to protect/restore a wetland somewhere else

17:23 – DJ White, TGS Episode, Taiwanese Drive-Kill

18:33 – Term Limits, Age-limits, addressing money corruption in politics

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.

Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.