The Oil Drum

Excellent essay! Jay Hanson came to the same conclusion.  Whether Peakoil Yesterday, or in Twenty Years, he said the mass majority and especially the majority of our leaders will never change; it is in our Genes to seek MPP:
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"The Maximum Power Principle states that all open systems (Bernard cells, ecosystems, people, societies, etc.) evolve to degrade as much energy as possible while allowing for the continued existence of the larger systems they are part of."

"All species expand as much as resources allow and predators, parasites, and physical conditions permit. When a species is introduced into a new habitat with abundant resources that accumulated before its arrival, the population expands rapidly until all the resources are used up. In wine making, for example, a population of yeast cells in freshly-pressed grape juice grows exponentially until nutrients are exhausted -- or waste products become toxic."
 -- David Price; http://dieoff.com/page137.htm

This is commonly seen in the pursuit of individual gain at the expense of the larger community. When individuals maximize gain, populations experience overshoot and die off.
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IMO, the best we can hope to do is to somehow optimize our decline for the squeeze thru the Bottleneck.  I realize it is not much to go on--but remember, no other species ever had the mental capacity and understanding to even try.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?