IN PRAISE OF ANARCHY, PART III

"First, whereas with living systems an increase in size causes the internal clock to slow down—the larger the size the slower the metabolism, the slower the heart rate and the longer the lifespan—with cities the effect of greater size is the opposite: the larger the city, the larger is the metabolic cost and the energy expenditure per unit size, and the more hectic is the pace of life. To keep pace with the metabolic requirements of a growing socioeconomic system, socioeconomic time must continuously accelerate. Second, whereas all living systems exhibit bounded growth up to an optimum size, socioeconomic systems such as cities exhibit unbounded, superexponential growth. These two differences added together imply that cities must reach a point where they must move infinitely fast in order to maintain their homeostatic equilibrium: a singularity. But it is inevitable that they reach natural limits well before they reach the singularity, and collapse. In short, large-scale socioeconomic systems are not sustainable ... The key difference between a living organism and a city is that while a living organism is organized anarchically, a city is organized hierarchically ... that collapse is not an accident; collapse is an engineered product. It is being engineered by those who think that a higher level of authority, coordination, harmonization and unity is always a net benefit at any scale ... The greatest weakness we have in our nature is our propensity for forming hierarchies, for following formal systems of rules and laws that attempt to defy natural laws, and for listening to utopians."

Ein Artikel von Dmitry Orlov über anarchisch aufgebaute Natursysteme im Gegensatz zu hierarchisch aufgebauten Städten und menschlichen Gesellschaften, deren Wachstumszwang zu unweigerlichem Kollaps führt. Erschienen auf ClubOrlov (20. November 2012).

> Ein Beitrag der