Study Guide: Chapter 17 — Unsustainable

Core Idea

Sustainability-as-stasis is unattainable and wrong — it's the static society's ideal, and static societies are the most fragile. Safety lies in continual problem-solving (dynamism), not in reaching a fixed steady state. Problems are inevitable; only knowledge-growth meets them.

Key Terms

Sustainability (critiqued) · continual problem-solving · dynamism · Malthusian ceilings

Case Summary

Easter Island reread: the failure was insufficient knowledge-creation, not overconsumption. Malthusian ceilings (food, energy) were broken by knowledge (Haber, Green Revolution), not restraint.

Application Checklist

• [ ] Find a "reach a stable end-state" goal that's really a static aspiration
• [ ] Build problem-solving capacity, not just stockpiles against known threats
• [ ] Weigh the asymmetry: where might betting on future knowledge actually bite?

Self-Test

1. Why is a sustainable state necessarily a static one?
2. What's Deutsch's inversion of the Easter Island lesson?
3. What's the strongest objection (irreversible thresholds)?