The Doom Machine

Hypertrophy is the equilibrium state of the present world.  In the fatal marriage of High Tech Man and Biosphere, hypertrophy progresses to the Omega Point-- the End.  Man has tried to triumph over life in the state of Nature for the bettering of human existence.  But stupid, inexorable human nature defeats the dream of rationalized perfection--"Just keep tinkering with the Machine until we get it right."  But the mad logic of growth results in extinction, when hypertrophy surpasses the limits to growth.  As the fear of our collective demise increases, everything is done to speed up the hypertrophy, to outrun the mechanical horses of the Apocalypse (to buy some more time, only to make the final plunge one to a much deeper depth of Hell on Earth).  We've known from the early 1970s, at least, where we were headed, and done nothing sufficient to stop the Machine, mainly because short-term, near-at-hand concerns of self-interest always prevailed-- the 'Limits to Growth' of human wisdom-- and it always trumps long-term survival.  So, "Bye bye, humans, bye bye, world."