That is, are we at the cusp of a truly calamitous collapse of the entire economic and social order of the past couple of hundred years. Our economy has developed based, in large part, on the availability of relatively cheap energy in the form of petroleum. Some believe, with good reason, that the days of cheap oil are actually behind us. If cheap oil is over, how can we continue to support our highly decentralized life styles?

One of the best known proponents of this view is Dmitry Orlov, software engineer from Leningrad, who is to some the quintessential doom-and-gloomer. Whether he is right or wrong, he is always interesting to listen to and it is worthwhile to hear him out.

You can watch a talk he gave to the Long Now Foundation, entitled Social Collapse Best Practices.  His website is here and you can watch a more recent talk he gave at the Feasta Conference here. (Warning: The last link is a very slow download. Be patient.)