Shelley Hartman | Queen's University at Kingston (original) (raw)
Papers by Shelley Hartman
I grant you there may not seem to be an obvious connection between the two – but – they both can ... more I grant you there may not seem to be an obvious connection between the two – but – they both can be used to illustrate the limits of scalability in system design, which is the reason why World Government will never happen.
This paper begins as an examination of the source for the ancient Greek word for pin, buckle, bro... more This paper begins as an examination of the source for the ancient Greek word for pin, buckle, brooch and bone, the περόνη, or perónē. Latin has a similar word, fibula for the pin, but it does not refer to any bone. The etymology of both words are studied and worked back through history to their respective origins in the literary record. The decorative ornaments are likewise examined in their archaeological context. However, there remained, the nagging question of why the perónē referred to a bone at all, at the same time as it identified a pin, buckle or brooch. Comparative animal anatomy indicates that the perónē, which today is referred to by its Latin name, fibula, is a rare bone, and is absent in ungulates, the common domesticated food animals. The perónē always occurs in pairs and large well-developed ones are found in predator species. At some point in the deep past, it appears that the bone and pin may have been one and the same.
How can this paper better elucidate conditions currently being faced and projected to exist in th... more How can this paper better elucidate conditions currently being faced and projected to exist in the twenty-first century? In the last hundred years human population has increased 400%. In 1927 there were approximately 2.5 billion people; currently there are 7.3 billion and it is projected that by 2025 there will likely be 8 billion. This is not promising.
This paper focuses on the principal causal factor of collapse: population expansion and resultant... more This paper focuses on the principal causal factor of collapse: population expansion and resultant resource depletion. Multiple disciplines have drilled research wells for sixty years; now is the time for synthesis and Archaeology is the single best field for knowledge consolidation. Humans are not special and complex human systems manifest characteristic elements. The function of telomeres demystifies mortality (A. Olovnikov 1973). The geometric principle of linear straightness explains human temporal myopia. Self-organizing criticality, pioneered by physicist Per Bak (1987), illustrates why civilizations emerge as managerial responses to population pressure. The work of chemist Ilya Prigogine (1957) suggests that individuality precedes collapse. The laws of thermodynamics make comprehensible Joseph Tainter’s use of the economic term “decreased marginal returns”. Research in trans-genetic memory by Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler may indicate we can never learn from history and that free will is an illusion. Correlating these with other allied factors results in a collapse model which appears elastic, scalable and predictive, and which coincidentally revitalizes Mommsen’s “cycle of historical evolution".
I grant you there may not seem to be an obvious connection between the two – but – they both can ... more I grant you there may not seem to be an obvious connection between the two – but – they both can be used to illustrate the limits of scalability in system design, which is the reason why World Government will never happen.
This paper begins as an examination of the source for the ancient Greek word for pin, buckle, bro... more This paper begins as an examination of the source for the ancient Greek word for pin, buckle, brooch and bone, the περόνη, or perónē. Latin has a similar word, fibula for the pin, but it does not refer to any bone. The etymology of both words are studied and worked back through history to their respective origins in the literary record. The decorative ornaments are likewise examined in their archaeological context. However, there remained, the nagging question of why the perónē referred to a bone at all, at the same time as it identified a pin, buckle or brooch. Comparative animal anatomy indicates that the perónē, which today is referred to by its Latin name, fibula, is a rare bone, and is absent in ungulates, the common domesticated food animals. The perónē always occurs in pairs and large well-developed ones are found in predator species. At some point in the deep past, it appears that the bone and pin may have been one and the same.
How can this paper better elucidate conditions currently being faced and projected to exist in th... more How can this paper better elucidate conditions currently being faced and projected to exist in the twenty-first century? In the last hundred years human population has increased 400%. In 1927 there were approximately 2.5 billion people; currently there are 7.3 billion and it is projected that by 2025 there will likely be 8 billion. This is not promising.
This paper focuses on the principal causal factor of collapse: population expansion and resultant... more This paper focuses on the principal causal factor of collapse: population expansion and resultant resource depletion. Multiple disciplines have drilled research wells for sixty years; now is the time for synthesis and Archaeology is the single best field for knowledge consolidation. Humans are not special and complex human systems manifest characteristic elements. The function of telomeres demystifies mortality (A. Olovnikov 1973). The geometric principle of linear straightness explains human temporal myopia. Self-organizing criticality, pioneered by physicist Per Bak (1987), illustrates why civilizations emerge as managerial responses to population pressure. The work of chemist Ilya Prigogine (1957) suggests that individuality precedes collapse. The laws of thermodynamics make comprehensible Joseph Tainter’s use of the economic term “decreased marginal returns”. Research in trans-genetic memory by Brian Dias and Kerry Ressler may indicate we can never learn from history and that free will is an illusion. Correlating these with other allied factors results in a collapse model which appears elastic, scalable and predictive, and which coincidentally revitalizes Mommsen’s “cycle of historical evolution".