Schmachtenberger
Schmachtenberger and the Work
On why civilizational collapse is not inevitable but predictable, and what Schmachtenberger demands we do about the generator functions that produce it
The Cartographer
Schmachtenberger
Sensemaking and the Epistemic Commons
On the shared infrastructure of knowledge-making, how algorithmic capitalism degrades it, and why civilization depends on its repair
Schmachtenberger
The Rivalrous World and the Path Out
On how rational self-interest produces collective catastrophe, and why coordination failure is now civilization's fundamental problem
Schmachtenberger
Generator Functions
On the underlying mechanisms that generate crises rather than their symptoms, and why most responses to the metacrisis fail at the systemic level
Schmachtenberger
The Systems Thinker at the End of History
On how civilization's extraordinary power and accelerating crises demand a new framework for thinking itself, beyond technological optimism and apocalyptic despair
McLuhan
Living Inside His Predictions
On McLuhan's uncanny accuracy about electronic media, and the blind spots that accuracy conceals
McLuhan
Electric Man and the End of Linear Thought
On how electric media dissolve the linear mind that print created, and what consciousness becomes when simultaneity replaces sequence
McLuhan
The Global Village We Didn't Want
On McLuhan's prediction of electronic interdependence, the collapse of privacy, and why the global village was never meant to be liberating
McLuhan
Hot and Cool Media
On how media that demand participation versus passive reception reshape consciousness, and why the distinction matters more than the medium itself
McLuhan
The Medium is the Message
On how media shape human consciousness and social order far more deeply than their content, and why this distinction is crucial to understanding modernity
Collapse Literacy
What Comes After
On how hope and despair are both evasions of the present moment, and why the capacity to remain uncertain is the foundation of genuine response
Collapse Literacy
The Builders in the Rubble
On how civilizational collapse requires builders who create meaning through practice, not preservation, and why small communities of genuine transmission are the only adequate response