Collapse
Collapse is a single word label for a situation in which networks of distribution of goods no longer function. All societal collapses throughout history, and all future societal collapses will be occasioned by the implosion or abandonment of networks of distribution. Collapse is, more or less, a failure of transportation infrastructure. I say this to highlight that it is networks of transportation that sustain, and indeed make possible, sociopolitical complexity.
Collapse is a fundamentally sudden, pronounced loss of an established level of sociopolitcal complexity.
Infrastructure serves as a city’s giant circulatory system, with steel pipes, electric wires, concrete roads, railroad tracks, and canals moving fluids, solids, and energy into and out of the city. The circulatory system of a modern city is very active, and it requires high energy inputs to keep the city-dwellers fed and prevent the build-up of wastes.
Notes Related To Collapse
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