DO 246 - Metastatic Modernity with Prof. Tom Murphy

Metastatic Modernity

with Prof. Tom Murphy

Josh catches up with Tom for a second conversation (first interview here) about two new series on Tom’s excellent Do The Math blog.

Dec 16, 2024

Tom has produced a “Metastatic Modernity” series of 18 short (~10 min) videos accompanied by write-ups providing a succinct but comprehensive explication of the poly crises of modernity, along with a convenient index to the series.

Tom also became an ad hoc demographer after examining population and fertility data and noticing anomalies in the official UN population projections for this century. Turns out, we may be facing peak population, peak energy throughput, and peak economic growth much earlier than anticipated!

Demography series:

1. Watching Population Bomb—could we actually start to deflate before 2050?

2. Peak Population Projections—demographic models supporting earlier peaks

3. Whiff After Whiff—the U.N. models don’t capture/predict recent fertility declines

4. Population “What If” Games—exploring population limiting cases

5. Peak Population Video—why U.N. models may overestimate peak population

6. Brace for Peak Impact—demographic driver for civilization’s peak power (soon)

7. Peak Power Video—why we might hit peak power in the next decade

8. Stubborn Expectations—U.N. models for fertility barely react to recent trends