The one true universal human addiction is to communication. Driven by a form of anxiety - curiosity – a need to know what the rest of the world is doing, what the world is like, what the world is.
Communication requires connection – up close & personal or at a distance. One defining feature of human ‘progress’ is the development of ever more methods of communicating at a distance, be that across time or space. We have to move ourselves or to move information.
As things stand today the most powerful methods of communication & connection - flight, motorised travel, electronic computers & networks - depend very largely on oil.
We are not addicted to oil, we could manage perfectly well without it if we had alternative ways of providing the motive power for moving ourselves or our bits.
It makes no sense to focus on oil & to conclude that the only way to reduce our dependency is to reduce our desire for communication & connection. To withdraw into our own little corner of the space time continuum. It is an extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die - Seneca
