Metastatic Modernity #18: What Can I Do?

This is the final episode in a series of 18 short videos aiming to put modernity (another word for civilization) in perspective. In terms of cosmology, evolution, biology, ecology, and time, modernity is highly unusual and inherently self-terminating (i.e., fated to collapse). Eventually, a cancer metaphor is used to describe the tumor we witness growing out of control, spreading to all parts of the globe (metastasizing) and initiating a sixth mass extinction. Humans are not the cancer, but the infected organ within the community of life where the cancer took root. This final video attempts to offer useful advice on how to respond to the inevitable end of modernity, getting out in front of it. No guarantees on usefulness, but I hope some of it is helpful. More detail, including how I implement some of the suggestions personally can be found in the companion write-up, linked just below.

A parallel write-up (more polished; extra details) can be found at https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/08/mm... and the series page is at https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/metastatic...

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:47 Not a TED Talk (again)
01:19 Both Easy and Hard
03:00 Ten Suggestions
03:28 1. Go Easy on Yourself
04:19 2. Let it Go
04:58 3. Walk Away
06:15 4. Embrace Disillusionment
07:11 5. Accept Losses
08:15 6. It Gets Easier
08:52 7. Double-Edged Brains
10:26 8. Lesser Evils
11:14 9. Pick a Team
12:50 10. Regain What We Lost
14:57 Closing and Do the Math