Elon has suggested the vision of a "sustainable future"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkManNuuYog<p>This is a technology-maximized future. However, in the book
"This Civilisation is Finished: Conversations on the end of Empire - and what lies beyond"
we find that there are 3 likely near-term endgames for society<p>(1) This civilisation could collapse utterly and terminally, as a result
of climatic instability (leading for instance to catastrophic food short-
ages as a probable mechanism of collapse), or possibly sooner than
that, through nuclear war, pandemic, or financial collapse leading
to mass civil breakdown. Any of these are likely to be precipitated in
part by ecological/climate instability, as Darfur and Syria were. Or<p>(2) This civilisation (we) will manage to seed a future successor-civil-
isation(s), as this one collapses. Or<p>(3) This civilisation will somehow manage to transform itself delib-
erately, radically and rapidly, in an unprecedented manner, in time
to avert collapse.<p>The second option basically amounts to designing future towns that
are self-sufficient based on local production and consumption, perhaps
with trading skills with nearby towns. The towns could not rely on any
form of support they could not maintain. This includes virtually all
electronics.<p>It would be interesting to construct "guidelines" for structuring
a self-sustaining town.<p>For example, constructing a mechanical windmill that pumps water
to a man-made lake on very high ground. This is made from simple
technology (iron for pipes, geo-engineering, etc). It feeds a
simple filtration system constructed from rocks and soil. Deep
drilled holes could provide heated water. A food and barter economy
would prevail, etc.<p>Thoughts?
It's a good question and I have been thinking about it recently.<p>I think the biggest challenge is: if civilization does fall, e.g. due to a massive virus outbreak, and not enough people know how to produce industrialized products locally, it's going to be very tough.<p>So the immediately urgency is to bring some industries back.
This is a good resource <a href="http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/" rel="nofollow">http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/</a>