The End of the Petrol Era and its Possible Consequences

[pvpatty]

God bless Google:

Poundbury is a mixed urban development of Town Houses, Cottages, Shops & Light Industry, designed for the Prince of Wales by Architect Leon Krier on the outskirts of the Dorset County Town of Dorchester. Prince Charles, The Duke of Cornwall, decided it was time to show how Traditional Architecture and Modern Town Planning could be used in making a thriving new community that people could live & work in close proximity. Poundbury has now become World Famous as a model of urban planning, with regular visits from Councillors and MPs.

http://www.poundbury.info/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poundbury

[Costi]

There can be little doubt that overpopulation is indeed a problem. I'm not suggesting (as I believe Prince Philip has) that we introduce superbugs to kill some people off (though I know some that we could put at the top of the list ) but I can't understand the chronic fear people have of declining birth rates and so on. The same goes for measures of economic growth. Is growth really everything? Is growth worth it if it is not sustainable?

These are the questions I ask; I wish that I had the answers.

Pvpatty, you will have some answers if you (re-)read Alvin Toffler.
In my view the evolution of science and the change of society resembles a convergent series in mathematics: we started with big leaps at large intervals of time (fire, the wheel, gravity etc.), went on to smaller and more frequent steps and now we're in an age where every day (or even hour) brings comparatively huge amounts of new information (the recently innitiated CERN experiment alone is said to produce an incredible 1% of the total information of mankind over the next few months), consequent changes in society (communication technology for instance) happen more often than once a year, most of us are unable to integrate all this new information, technology and change in our lives (so we feel alienated and look back to past times) and we seem to be getting ever closer to a point (the limit of the mathematical convergent series), but it remains ever out of reach (somewhat similar to Zeno's paradox with Achilles and the tortoise). I am not sure if we will ever reach that limit (mathematically we shouldn't), what it is and whether it will be a breakthrough or the end of it all. How much more can we accelerate? Unless the CERN experiment or the Providence endows us with a means to dilate time, perhaps we should take it easier for a while until we make out where we're heading.

[Mark P]

It's easy to see us returning to a world where energy consumption was less, there were fewer, more economical cars, repairing things rather than buying new, growing vegetables in the garden, clothes made to last, air travel a rarity, holidays near your home, wearing a sweater in the home, food comes from no more than 50 miles away. Seems like the 30s and 40s to me.

[Costi]

If there were a way back... Ever!

[storeynicholas]

If there were a way back... Ever!

I'm no mathematician or quantum physicist but, presumably, first of all, you would have to find the starting place to return and that might also be the finishing place for the past.

NJS