As with any paradigm, we rely on assumptions to provide a basis for communication about Postropolis.
What follows is the list of assumptions associated with the Postropolis paradigm.
This list will evolve over time as we improve upon our assumptions with evidence-driven inquiry.
The Assumptions of Postropolis
We are the invasive species.
We assume that at some point in the future of human civilization, geopolitical stability can be achieved, however that may pan out across any number of global and local economies.
We assume individuals, communities, states, nations, and corporations can have the tools and valid information necessary to know things like how much fuel (or any consumable) is left, understand trends of consumption and waste, and to know fixed prices (or understand trends in the fluctuation) of a variety of costs across spectra.
Assuming the provision of these tools and information, we assume that individual and collective decision making in the long and short term should be more approachable, as these knowledge sets can help to reduce the “wickedness” (or perceived complexity) of the problems we must solve
We assume we will transition to a global society that exists without internal combustion engines, or at least without individual humans operating alone in motorized vehicles designed to carry multiple people or cargo.
We assume we will build networks of “cities” as intended temporary infrastructures that are designed to change with all populations—the opposite of anthropocentricity—and biodegrade appropriately when necessary.
We assume human overpopulation will be solved—either intentionally through our own measures of timely restraint and reduction or as a result of any number of non-human natural system interactions accomplishing this reduction for us—with the global human population eventually shrinking back down to no more than 2 billion individuals on the planet, with sustained “no-growth” levels to prosper within the finite carrying capacity of our only habitable planet.
We assume we are going to find some form of interspecific cooperation much more mature than capitalism and its oligarchies and plutocracies, a system beyond the human supremacist leanings of socialism, an ecosocial self-governance system as broad or broader than our current ideals of ecocentrism and biophilia.
The species we must manage most strictly is ourselves.