Planning for an Uncertain Future

Got that sinking feeling? The world looks to be ready for some drastic lifestyle altering changes.

How do you get ready?

Here’s what I’ve decided.

Ultimately, humans are going to end up abandoning the 10,000 plus year agricultural revolution. There’s a bunch of “nuts” out there making some good points as to why this is going to happen.

The end of cheap oil and natural gas have started to make industrial agriculture unviable. This means that sometime in my lifetime (or my children’s) things are going to get really hairy.

Now. Living “primitive” is doable given knowledge of place and a fairly well defined set of skills. What is going to be difficult is getting from Here to there.

The Transition.

What do I see as the big killer? The process of modern human culture reforming as complexity breaks down. This breakdown will be due to lack of hydrocarbons for cheap transportation, goods and food production. Plus, being battered by climate change.

When do you pick up and leave? Leaving to soon is risky because you will have a hard time finding a place you can live hunter/gatherer and not get hounded by the law and other busy bodies. Plus, the forming of a tribe is tough when nobody see the need, yet.

I’m betting on breakdowns that happen in stages of some kind. Maybe drastic, maybe not.

Step 1 in my planning is “What’s the next immediate stage in the breakdown process?”
Step 2 “What might life look like after the next immediate stage in the breakdown process?”

What I’m interested in doing is defining what I can do now. And then plan for action I may need to take not so far down the road.

I see the economy coming apart, energy being permanantly high in price and the food supply becoming unreliable.

Buying a scooter, starting a small in-home service business, having a little extra food on hand are all examples of tihngs you can do now. If you agree with my views on the next step.

Figure out what you think the world is going to look like in 2-5 years. Be flexible. Plan accordingly.