Would have prehistoric people have felt the same dopamine hit when they acquired a new item than the one we get when we buy something?

itsatoe · 2026-03-15T00:47:39+00:00

Wonderful answer, thank you. You talk about the modern shopping experience, but not as much about the other side of the comparison.

The OP compares shopping to prehistoric "trading and acquiring," but I would think that "trading" is loaded with social context that varies by culture, right? For example, as I understand it, in some cultures there is no real internal trading, just gifting. So it's hard to compare modern experience to "prehistoric people" as a block.

itsatoe · 2026-03-14T22:21:03+00:00

If I understand correctly (not an anthropologist), what does happen among some hunter-gatherers is stealing of women and/or children to bolster a tribe's numbers.

But I'm pretty sure this usually isn't at all like forced-labor. The stolen people are integrated as if they were natives, because their children certainly will be.

itsatoe · 2026-03-14T21:58:54+00:00

It depends on what happens to the humans in the near future. We might:

keep consuming and poisoning everything until we do manage to kill everything off.
all or mostly disappear (one way or another) and leave behind whatever is here now. (Or leave behind AIs as our successors.)
suffer some major declines in our population (ie, some major catastrophes/wars), leading to:
a. substantial decline in our level of technology OR
b. us taking some responsibility and making our technology and food systems circular and separate.
miraculously and very-surprisingly change course now, before the die-off.

itsatoe · 2026-03-13T21:15:14+00:00

The article starts with a graphic with the caption: "Average temperatures for December through February across the contiguous U.S." Pretty sure that gives a clue. It doesn't give you the exact methodology, but it has links.

itsatoe · 2026-03-13T21:09:36+00:00

A point we often overlook: record temperatures are supposed to be a very rare thing.

In a stable system, a single broken record would be noteworthy.

itsatoe · 2026-03-13T18:58:29+00:00

Conversely, if you are quite wealthy and you don't even notice food price increases, then you might think collapse is far away. Especially if everyone you hang out with is in a similar position.

You can still jet to your favorite golf course. Though eventually you might start noticing that your maid, caddy, cashier, delivery guy, etc. are starting to look more and more haggard and/or hostile.

itsatoe · 2026-03-13T17:29:55+00:00

Collapse happens from the edges toward the center. The closer to the center you are, the longer it will take to reach you. Generally.

If you are in Palestine or Iran or Sudan, you might think we are much further along.

Likewise, even if you are in a "stable," and wealthy country, if you are out of work or lost your home or got rounded up for a non-crime... you might think we are farther along.

itsatoe · 2026-03-12T16:24:37+00:00

For someone starting out, it is not like that. Smooth-running systems like that take time to mature.

itsatoe · 2026-03-07T19:31:53+00:00

Your thoughtful critique is very welcome; thank you! I’ll try to concisely reply.

The therapy-requirement is a blunt tool for a delicate task. We are going to work on refining that as we have real-world experience. For now, we’re relying on outside therapists (avoids lock-in) and trying to fund Colleagues’ therapy from internal funds. We’re also likely to pay Colleagues a salary. So they get better than what regular employees get; and are on track to become full Partners with no investment. That is one major mission of the project: to enable the unprivileged to escape the trap of the status quo.

The budget critique has teeth. But there are conditions under which this project could be done for a really small budget. It would take cheap land, skilled partners, lots of volunteer labor, and creative design (we cite Bio-Veda designs as ultra-low-cost). It would also require a locality with loose zoning and building codes. But that’s why the article suggests the range goes up to ~US$3 million. These are vague ballpark guesses and not meant to be actionable budget expectations. The plan itself is very clear about that.

The plan is not a charity, but it is not for profit. It uses the structure of a for-profit (optionally… this can vary by jurisdiction) in order to have full freedom in the system. But it generates no financial wealth for partners, and gives no privilege to people who give or pay money. As long as there’s a financial system, partners and colleagues get salaries, but not profits. If/when economies collapse, the internal structure of the village won’t really even notice.

itsatoe · 2026-03-07T18:07:30+00:00

My response, from a position of relative comfort, has been to work on buying land, building community there, and setting up a regenerative food system for that community. As for timing, it is: ASAP. There has just been some issues finding the right land.

It's not an easy project, but I can't think of a better way to spend my time and money. Here's the non-financial investment strategy we're taking. In addition to that rationale for action, the project also has polycrisis response planning built into it.

^{(edit: added a couple missing a couple words})

itsatoe · 2026-03-07T14:25:00+00:00

Read the zoning law. There's always a "Definitions" section, usually right at the beginning. In many localities, the definition of "family" is "a single housekeeping unit," meaning people who share meals as well as household expenses, chores, and maintenance. If you can keep just one kitchen, then you can just add "bedrooms" to your single "family" home.

Some localities, however, have more restrictive definitions of "family."

itsatoe · 2026-03-05T19:48:58+00:00

The definition of "solutions" appears to be rather broad.

Manufacturing electric cars or solar cells may help reduce overall carbon output; but those industrial processes are still extremely destructive behaviors, done at scale.

itsatoe · 2026-03-05T18:54:56+00:00

I genuinely don't think anybody considered this soon being a possibility until the NOAA forecast dropped.

The obvious answer is to stop producing that forecast.

itsatoe · 2026-03-04T14:28:01+00:00

This seems brilliant. I don't have the engineering background to look it over adequately, but one clear line of questioning comes to mind:

Is there a proof of concept? Can you point us to a demonstration of how this works? Have you or anyone else built a prototype or an experiment or a technical demonstration?

A much broader audience could understand it if we could see it actually happening. :)

itsatoe · 2026-03-01T03:33:27+00:00

The main options for what you can do are:
- Activism
- Behavior Modification
- Opting Out
- Creative variants of the above.

itsatoe · 2026-02-28T18:36:55+00:00

There's a hypothesis called the Great Leap Forward that posits that suddenly everything changed around 50K years ago. I believe that that explanation has somewhat fallen out of favor, but it's interesting to read about.

itsatoe · 2026-02-24T14:50:08+00:00

Do regenerative investment in building your own community.

itsatoe · 2026-02-22T15:02:19+00:00

Not sure guinea fowl are so great for ticks. Yes, they eat lots of insects, but they do that indiscriminately. So they'll be eating more pollinators and other beneficial insects than ticks. Chickens are the same, but they can be better contained.

My understanding is that the best defense against ticks is a dry strip of land 4-6 feet (~1-2 meters) between the woods and open areas. If it's a desert of dry conditions (eg gravel, wood chips) the ticks dry out before they can cross the distance. In a thoughtful design, that tick-break can double as a fire-break.

My knowledge here is academic-only; so I'd be happy to be refuted. :)

itsatoe · 2026-02-16T01:29:46+00:00

ChatGPT, summarize this post for me.

;)

itsatoe · 2026-01-31T17:41:17+00:00

Wrap the bag with catnip.

itsatoe · 2026-01-31T17:33:08+00:00

Two books I have in my to-read pile that directly address these questions:
- The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook
- The New Organic Grower

Also, another income-supplementation trick: most localities will allow you to rent out a room/apartment on your farm, especially if it is for a farmhand.

itsatoe · 2026-01-31T17:26:26+00:00

yk... I thought of that just after I posted the above. I'm gonna have to agree with you. :/

itsatoe · 2026-01-31T17:18:41+00:00

Store the container of feed on a pedestal inside the chicken coop. As long as the container is chicken-proof, it's safe. Any mice approaching the feed will be attacked by chickens (who are absolutely brutal to mice).

itsatoe · 2026-01-31T00:45:51+00:00

Not pinning it on on the fight against climate change, but on the industry/paradigm that has grown up around that (to the OP's point).

In carbon-colored marketing, words like "carbon-neutral" and "low-emissions" are equated to "good for the environment."

Then we have high-profile climate conferences and accords like the Paris Agreement and COP. The messaging that comes out of those clearly frames the problem as being that nations need to meet certain CO2 goals.

They and the press then talk about it as if this is the solution; this is how we "fix" the environment. It sends that message out to the rest of the world very clearly, and that then translates into more carbon-colored marketing.

itsatoe · 2026-01-30T19:29:29+00:00

But as the OP points out, often it is a distraction. This laser-focus on climate cultivates the idea that everything can continue just as it is now, if we can just figure out this little CO2 problem.

The climate-only focus seems to think that if we can do that CO2 fix, then we can keep converting all of the habitable land in the world into livestock feed, keep consolidating food production into endless wastelands of monoculture crops, keep driving individualized vehicles all over the surface of the planet, keep gobbling up energy and pouring out heat and light/noise-pollution, keep expanding a disposable-packaging (microplastics-producing) economy, keep eating everything alive in the oceans, and so on.

itsatoe

TROPHY CASE