“The Mother of All Collapses”
Complex Systems, Crises and Modern Analogues
In: Journal of Applied HistorySearch for other papers by Mark Andrew Orsag in
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Search for other papers by Amanda McKinney in
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Abstract
Utilizing the complex systems scholarship of Ugo Bardi as well as potentially informative, but always imprecise, historical analogy, this article examines the unraveling of the Roman Empire. In Bardi’s view, this “Mother of All Collapses” is a potentially powerful warning for our twenty-first-century globalized planet. Our work situates a key collapse “tipping point” for Ancient Rome’s Mare Nostrum (Our Sea)-centered civilization at “The Alexander Moment”—the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus in 235 CE. Ancient and modern analogues and potential key differences, in terms of both exacerbating and dampening types of interacting feedback, are identified and analyzed.
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“The Mother of All Collapses”
Complex Systems, Crises and Modern Analogues
In: Journal of Applied HistorySearch for other papers by Mark Andrew Orsag in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Amanda McKinney in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Utilizing the complex systems scholarship of Ugo Bardi as well as potentially informative, but always imprecise, historical analogy, this article examines the unraveling of the Roman Empire. In Bardi’s view, this “Mother of All Collapses” is a potentially powerful warning for our twenty-first-century globalized planet. Our work situates a key collapse “tipping point” for Ancient Rome’s Mare Nostrum (Our Sea)-centered civilization at “The Alexander Moment”—the assassination of Emperor Alexander Severus in 235 CE. Ancient and modern analogues and potential key differences, in terms of both exacerbating and dampening types of interacting feedback, are identified and analyzed.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 186 | 186 | 59 |
| Full Text Views | 8 | 8 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 21 | 21 | 5 |