Part of the problem is that we fundamentally have two cultural biases that will lead us towards the Trantor scenario: the first is liberty and the second is democracy. I confess that I am personally attached to both of these biases. The idea with liberty is that each individual should be able to use resources (land and energy) to maximize his/her life potential - nothing wrong with that notion. As far as democracy is concerned, the governing consensus should be ruled a majority vote in order to maximize benefits across its majority constituency. Again, this seems logical. However, both ideas have to be challenged if we are to avoid a Trantor type scenario. Liberty favors individual aspirations (by definition short term) over the longer term collective good. Democracy favors the living over the dead, but it also favors the living over the not yet born, i.e. if favors the immediate over what happens fifty years down the line. Also Democracy implicitly contains a bias towards growth, as it continually seeks the widest possible constituency.

We are sort of in a prisoner’s dilemma, everyone prefers Shangri-la but they will opt for Trantor in a pinch - as long as their 401Ks are protected for the next thirty years. Frankly, I do not think that there is a way out - we are heading for Trantor and are going to smash into a red line sooner or later, and end out somewhere back in the Middle Ages. Both democracy and liberty give us an illusion of control, but both were developed at a time of much greater resources along with a lower population back in the 18th century. My sense is that neither will prove very resilient when confronted with the crisis that is rapidly developing.