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<\/a>It\u2019s been almost three years since I published my book Shrinking the Technosphere<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and an astute critic might observe that it didn\u2019t work as intended because the technosphere hasn\u2019t shrunk. True, it was intended as an only slightly ironic how-to book, but then it isn\u2019t known how many people bothered to read it and actually practice what I preach. It is possible to equivocate a bit on the point that the technosphere isn\u2019t shrinking: for example, heavy truck orders in the US are down 81% from last year<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. These Class 8 trucks move the vast majority of goods in the US and this collapse signals a major slowdown across the entire economy.<\/span><\/p>\nSo the technosphere may not be entirely thriving; but then it doesn\u2019t seem to be particularly shrinking either. There is no shortage of techno-optimists on hand talking up newfangled technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, molecular, cellular and nuclear technology, stem cell technology, tissue and organ farming, nanobiotechnology, biomimetics, nanobionics, nanotronics, not to mention the perennial techno-utopian stand-by\u2019s of artificial intelligence, renewable energy, electric driverless cars and the internet of things. \u201cA new technological revolution is at hand!\u201d they exclaim. Fine, I say, but what\u2019s the new, overabundant resource for this new technological revolution?<\/span><\/p>\n As the famous movie quote goes, \u201cIf you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you<\/em> are the sucker\u201d (From John Dahl\u2019s 1988 film Rounders<\/em>). Another famous quote, all the way back from the French Revolution, is \u201cThe revolution, like Saturn, devours its own children\u201d (said by Danton at his trial). If you can\u2019t spot the resource for your next technological revolution, then you are the resource. Look at all the previous technological revolutions. In each case, a new technology opened up for exploitation a new, superabundant resource: agriculture\u2014arable land; mechanical spinning and weaving\u2014water power; steam engine and steelmaking\u2014coal; internal combustion engine\u2014oil; artificial intelligence-based robonanobiotronics\u2014still oil? Sorry, that’s no longer overabundant by any stretch of the imagination. (If you said \u201crenewable energy\u201d then think again: wind turbines, solar panels and battery banks can\u2019t be made or maintained without oil and natural gas.) Technology without a superabundant resource it can tap into is as useful as a spoon if your bowl is empty. The logic is simple: spot the resource; if you can\u2019t, it\u2019s probably you.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s focus on what\u2019s supposed to be the main pillar of the next technological revolution: information technology. Most of us have smartphones, laptops, store our data in the cloud and make use of abundant and free information resources\u2014all the free apps you want, free blogging, free Youtube videos, etc. But what new resource has all this technology opened up for you, the user? The hardware costs you money (the average iPhone now costs around 800 USD) and the time you spend fiddling around with it is subtracted from all the other, potentially useful and gainful activities.<\/span><\/p>\n You could try arguing that having an iPhone makes you more efficient because you have all the information and communications technology you could possibly need right at your fingertips. That point is hard to deny. I recently recorded a radio interview for a radio station in upstate New York while strolling about among the potato blossoms on my field in the Novgorod region of Russia via the internet and a 4G connection via a tower in the neighboring village. That\u2019s nothing short of miraculous, and it\u2019s certainly efficient (my smartphone is 7 years old, fully amortized a long time ago and still as good as new now that I\u2019ve replaced every single mechanical component, sometimes twice). But is it effective?<\/span><\/p>\n The smartphones are generally effective in making their users spend money that they may or may not have on things they may or may not need. All of the free access to information is paid for by collecting data on users (spying, basically) and using it to create targeted ads that turn users into online shoppers. Everything is highly customized: women look at pictures of shoes; men look at pictures of power tools. Both the shoes and the power tools, if purchased, will be used a few times a year at most, but the money will be gone forever. The limiting factor here, of course, is the resource, which is you: once your savings are depleted and your debts are maxed out, you are cast out into the howling wilderness roamed by various troglodytes\u2014those the information revolution has already eaten as well as those who were never on the menu.<\/span><\/p>\n The information revolution makes efficient use of you, its prime resource. Efficiency is a measure of how few resources are required to obtain the required result (in this case, making sure that \u201cthe fool and his money are soon parted\u201d). Effectiveness is a measure of how effective that result is. What Americans have been doing for the past 70 years has been more and more efficient (just look at the improvement in gas mileage!) but less and less effective. The all-time high mark for standard of living was set by white American suburbanites in the 1950s, when daddy worked at a factory punching holes in sheet metal and earned enough money to pay for a house and two cars and feed the whole family, a dog and a cat, while all mommy had to do was operate various labor-saving domestic appliances, pop out babies and take them shopping. It\u2019s been a downhill ride ever since then.<\/span><\/p>\n How far downhill? Now many fewer children can only find part-time employment and can\u2019t afford to start families once they grow up. Most of them live in their parents\u2019 attics and basements. Many of them have been brainwashed into thinking that they don\u2019t need to start families anyhow: you see, the planet is overpopulated already and anthropogenic climate change will cause everyone to go extinct in another decade or so, and therefore bringing more children into the world would be a cruel thing for them to do. They\u2019ve also been conditioned to think that they are some \u201cgender\u201d or other than one of the three biological sexes (male, female, reject). This makes traditional mating rituals ineffective, impairing family formation.<\/span><\/p>\n This is both good and bad. It\u2019s bad, especially from the parental perspective, because what\u2019s the point of bringing up children that won\u2019t have children of their own? It\u2019s good, because if we find the perspective of evolving into free-range troglodytes unappealing and want to stay \u201con the inside,\u201d where there will be less and less room as resources are consumed and depleted, then fewer people is what we want. (I am not sure who \u201cwe\u201d are in this instance since that\u2019s not a club to which I wish to belong.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s not necessarily everyone\u2019s fate!\u201d you might exclaim. True, the more talented young people can move to where there are still good jobs, in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, where they spend most of what they earn on rent for closets and bunk beds to sleep in and the rest on gadgets. This gives an entire new meaning to the expression \u201con the inside\u201d: the $1600\/month bunk beds they inhabit are quite similar to the ones found in prisons. Will they be able to do this for the rest of their lives or will they suffer burn-out, get tossed out and join these cities\u2019 burgeoning homeless populations<\/strong><\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n If you don\u2019t like the prospect of you and your children getting eaten by the technological revolution, there are things you can do to avoid that fate. There are ways of milking the technosphere for all it\u2019s worth while rendering yourself inedible. The method is explained in my book<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To assist Dmitry make a donation at subscribestar<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n