Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

In defeat, the smaller neighbors would continue their path until
the whole world was a happy collection of liberal democracies.
great civilizations that have collapsed; perhaps all of them do so
eventually. The American anthropologist Joseph Tainter concluded
that the Roman Empire, the Egyptian Old Kingdom, the Mayan
civilization, and others all sputtered and died from a lack of energy.
Tainter begins with the presumption that the job of human
society is simply to solve human problems. When we join
together, we can avert dangers and meet basic needs in a way
that we might not have been able to do individually.
We create social structures—institutions—whose job it is to
take care of needs and threats. But the institutions we use to
solve problems generate a need for resources, and that need
increases the load on all of us.
No matter the time or place, new problems always arise. When
these challenges emerge, we create new organizations to deal
with them. The new bureaucracy takes care of the problem,
but the added complexity comes at a cost for everyone in
the culture.
Eventually, Tainter argues, we reach a point of diminishing
returns. The additional resources we put in are larger than
the problem-solving power we get out. At this point, society
has multiple layers of intertwined institutions, all of which
by the available resources. It is here that we reach our cultural
tipping point.
The beast we have created becomes too expensive to feed.
When we create too much complexity, we can no longer afford
it. For Tainter, this is the reason behind the collapse of every
previous major civilization in history.
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