A sociedade exponencial: Ensaio sobre o fim da humanidade

Abstract

We live today in the Exponential Society. It has arrived already, we are part of it and it brings us several challenges as a species. Including that of not extinguishing us. We must and can make the Exponential Society not the last type of human society on our planet. Human activities have been experiencing an extraordinary acceleration relatively recently: production, consumption, population, pollution, indiscriminate use of water are growing exponentially. This means that this growth is not only continuous and constant, but that the rates of such growth are drastically increasing. In addition to the fact that not all of these processes are positive – pollution for example – there is a limit that we cannot forget: our planet. Here is a basic and dramatic contradiction: how can a species that tends to grow limitlessly survive if it basically depends on limited resources? The risks of the Exponential Society are among us, and the threats increase, of course, exponentially as well. Current ecological responses, sustainable initiatives such as recycling, do not offer fundamental changes if the logic that sustains the Exponential Society does not change. But, even if the situation seems inexorable, the change of course is not necessarily in the hands of the powerful or in the global decision-making centers. We are all part of the Exponential Society and that is why we have an impact on it. Transforming it is a matter of conscience, number and will.