4 - Material Conditions

Summary

The chapter sets out the material conditions of the transition from the CAPE era to modernity, seeing a transition from the limited energy sources and materials of the CAPE era, to the more or less unlimited energy sources and materials that came into play during the nineteenth century. It looks in detail at the technological developments of the transition period since the early nineteenth century, and at the huge increases in interaction capacity and powers of destruction that these enabled. In material terms, the circumstances of humankind were transformed, but with the costs that the carrying capacity of the planet was overburdened, and humankind put itself at risk of committing species suicide.