The Arcadian Blueprint

The Great Simplification #68 with Simon Michaux

Arcadia by Károly Markó

This Week

I’ve said a few times on this podcast that I’ve come to realize there are no solutions for the predicament that we face, but instead are myriad responses. Today, Simon Michaux returns to discuss his new paper “A Resource Balanced Economy”, which outlines one potential response, in the form of an alternative economic and social system. This conversation builds off of his two previous episodes on The Great Simplification, unpacking some ideas and tools that may be helpful in planning for an unknown future with energy and material constraints. 

Dr. Simon Michaux is an Associate Professor of Geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland. He has a PhD in mining engineering. Dr. Michaux’s long-term work is on societal transformation toward a circular economy.

How can we be more intentional about the design of our technology to make products that are longer lasting and easier to reuse? How can we organize society to create resilient communities based around actual human needs, rather than endless efficiency geared towards growth? Can an ‘Arcadian Blueprint’ emerge, and at what scale, and by whom?

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In case you missed it…

How certain are you that the world will unfold as you expect? While there will ultimately be only one outcome, the odds of that future fall in a distribution, with some results much more likely than others. These odds shift over time by natural physical events - and by our actions. However, no one alive can know these distributions perfectly, but instead impute their own mental distribution shaped by their own bias, knowledge, and perspective. How might we use a probabilistic approach to better understand what’s possible - and even to better relate to others? By thinking of the future as a spectrum, can we avoid falling into traps of certainty and complacency that inevitably lead to inaction?

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