There's apparently an English translation released very recently: "How everything can collapse: A manual for our times."
I haven't read either version, but piecing together the thesis from reviews, it seems to be a somewhat more evolved form of Malthusian catastrophe and Peak Oil(/Energy), with a dash of climate change alarmism [1] and Piketty-style concern over inequality. And technology won't save us because... well, I haven't found anyone who can elucidate that concern. It seems to me that the commenter who wrote "this book seems to be only for those who were convinced beforehand" has it right.
[1] I don't like using "alarmism" here because it suggests that I don't think it's a problem (I do), but I can't think of a better succinct description of "if we don't fix this literally tomorrow, we're totally screwed."
Technology isn't a complete panacea, but humans in general are highly adaptable. History seems to indicate that innovation is the most common outcome of Malthusian catastrophes, so it seems more than reasonable to me to ask that anyone arguing for a Malthusian catastrophe needs to also argue why innovation is not going to again be the outcome.
There's apparently an English translation released very recently: "How everything can collapse: A manual for our times."
I haven't read either version, but piecing together the thesis from reviews, it seems to be a somewhat more evolved form of Malthusian catastrophe and Peak Oil(/Energy), with a dash of climate change alarmism [1] and Piketty-style concern over inequality. And technology won't save us because... well, I haven't found anyone who can elucidate that concern. It seems to me that the commenter who wrote "this book seems to be only for those who were convinced beforehand" has it right.
[1] I don't like using "alarmism" here because it suggests that I don't think it's a problem (I do), but I can't think of a better succinct description of "if we don't fix this literally tomorrow, we're totally screwed."
> technology won’t save us because...
I hope I’m not uncharitably interpreting your comment, but are you saying that technology will be some sort of panacea?
Technology isn't a complete panacea, but humans in general are highly adaptable. History seems to indicate that innovation is the most common outcome of Malthusian catastrophes, so it seems more than reasonable to me to ask that anyone arguing for a Malthusian catastrophe needs to also argue why innovation is not going to again be the outcome.
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