Nye 11 and conclusion
19th century belief in steady progress progress gives way to 20th
century modernism--people found themselves living in a much more
confusing world
- technology was making us rich, but we were losing
tradition
- history no longer seems like God's neat plan
- except to some: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpDd_Kq_vRk
- entropy--second law of thermodynamics instead of the
old narrative of increasing force
Different versions:
- Thurston and Edison believed technological progress was a
new form of evolution taking us to new possibilities
- new inventions made it possible for everyone to have more
and work less
- Henry (and Brook) Adams focused on entropy--we are
quickly using up the energy of the earth
Conclusion:
Three stories:
foundation narratives that are second creation stories--we
can improve on God's creation through technology, even make
ourselves new worlds. Enabling assumptions:
- We can impose a grid on the land
- free markets will be fair to everyone
- resource abundance
- Newtonian concept of force: we can transform one form of
energy into another without loss (Nye is metaphorically seeing
entropy as the side effects of technological progress
There is more variety in counternarratives but they revolve
around several key ideas
- That America was not empty when the settlers came
- that nature cannot be made into anything we wanted
without loss
- the free market does not always work out fairly
In the 20th century a compromise narrative developed: the
recovery narrative
- we will repair the damaged landscape
- conservation movement--noncommercial preservation of
special places for human enjoyment
Present day competing narratives
- Technology and individualism will solve our problems
- we need to return to traditional morals
- good stewardship
- creative sustainability