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Why We Can't Return to a Pre-Industrial Society
Global Society

Why We Can't Return to a Pre-Industrial Society

Before the Industrial Revolution, you could simply walk into the woods, change your name, and start over. Today, a world of 8 billion people and complex bureaucracies has made escaping civilization not just illegal, but physically impossible.

Haykal M. Zaidi
·2 min

Before the Industrial Revolution, the earth were unincorporated, unpoliced and treated as “the commons”. A guy could physically walk away to build a shelter in a forest or land without violating (any) laws.

You could also easily “reinvent” yourself by moving to another city and change your name. Your past life will be erased and no one could track you.

Furthermore, in many pre-industrial societies, “wandering” was a recognized and respected social category. We had monasteries, caravanserais and religious charities to feed and shelter those who ran away from their life.

Why We Can't Return to a Pre-Industrial Society— Before the Industrial Revolution, you could simply walk into the woods, change your name, and start over. Today, a world of 8 billion people and complex bureaucracies has made escaping civilization not just illegal, but physically impossible.

But. History is not rewindable (easily). Among the reason we cannot return to the previous pre-industrial world is human survival. Before the Industrial Revolution, the global population was under 1 billion people. Today, we have over 8 billion people kept alive by mechanized farming, modern medicine, power grids and global shipping routes.

Moreover, early industrialization was done by an accessible resources. Oil literally bubbled up from the ground and rich iron ore could be mined with simple tools. Today, getting oil requires deep-sea drilling just to crush tons of ore.

References

Capitalism Was Built on the Ruins of the Commons https://jacobin.com/2022/05/capitalism-ruins-commons-peter-linebaugh

A Brief History of National ID Cards - Harvard FXB Center https://fxb.harvard.edu/2015/11/12/a-brief-history-of-national-id-cards/

2 minutes to read — take your time.

From Babylon to biometrics: The epic evolution of IDs https://www.veriff.com/blog/from-babylon-to-biometrics-the-epic-evolution-of-ids

Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520233248/wandering-begging-monks

Caravansary | Ancient Travel Hubs & Accommodation https://www.britannica.com/technology/caravansary

Population Milestones - Population Connection https://populationconnection.org/resources/population-milestones/

How has world population growth changed over time? - Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/population-growth-over-time

Fossil Fuels and Future Mobility (EROI and Resource Depletion) - DieselNet https://dieselnet.com/tech/energy_fossil.php