The Retro Future: Looking to the Past to Reinvent the Future

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WHEN "NEW" STOPS MEANING "IMPROVED, " Isn't it time to talk about going back to things that actually work? Greer's vision of a "post-progress" world is clear, smart, and ultimately hopeful. - RICHARD POLT, professor of philosophy, Xavier University, and author, The Typewriter Revolution Engaging, witty, and exemplary of the Greer style we've come to love and rely on, The Retro Future will not disappoint. In fact, it may reassure you that in many instances, your ancestors got it right. - CAROLYN BAKER, Ph.D., author, Love In The Age of Ecological Apocalypse and Dark Gold TO MOST PEOPLE paying attention to the collision between industrial society and the hard limits of a finite planet, it's clear that things are going very, very wrong. We no longer have unlimited time and resources to deal with the crises that define our future, and the options are limited to the tools we have on hand right now. This book is about one very powerful option: deliberate technological regression. Technological regression isn't about "going back" - it's about using the past as a resource to meet the needs of the present. It starts from the recognition that older technologies generally use fewer resources and cost less than modern equivalents, and it embraces the heresy of technological choice - our ability to choose or refuse the technologies pushed by corporate interests. People are already ditching smartphones and going back to "dumb phones" and land lines, and e-book sales are declining while printed books rebound - clear signs among many that blind faith in progress is faltering, and opening up the possibility that the best way forward may well involve going back. A must-read for anyone willing to think the unthinkable and embrace the possibilities of a retro future. Greer says we are embarked upon the post-progress era. Climate change, loose nukes, and resource exhaustion are among its many challenges. In The Retro Future, Greer looks backward to mark the way forward. -ALBERT BATES, author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide, The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement JOHN MICHAEL GREER, one of the most consistently original social critics on the contemporary scene, is the author of more than forty published books, including After Progress and Dark Age America, as well as the widely read weekly blog The Archdruid Report. He lives in an old red brick mill town in the Appalachians with his wife Sara.