What Sloths Teach Us About the Superorganism

What Sloths Teach Us About the Superorganism

In this week's Frankly, Nate reflects on the multiple metaphors brought to mind via a single photograph, which depicts a sloth climbing a barbed wire fence in Costa Rica. Beyond evoking compassion for a species that's on the receiving end of human intervention into its ecosystem, the image raises larger ideas about the response of animals, including humans, to artificial cues and novel environments. Just as the sloth mistakes a fence post for the safety of a tree, modern humans mistake consumption, speed, and certainty for meaning.

Moving beyond just the image, Nate unpacks the word "sloth" itself as one of the original seven deadly sins, offering a reimagining of what today's seven moral failings might be in the context of a global economic superorganism. Apathy, righteousness, and anthropocentrism might be today's major vices, which each have consequences for the environment and our relationship to it.

Can we stand our ground locally against the global superorganism? How can we begin to reclaim agency and compassion – both for ourselves and the ecosystems we are inextricably a part of? Do our instincts no longer serve us in a world so rapidly and radically changed?

(Recorded October 13th, 2025)

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on YouTube

Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.



---

Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future

Join our Substack newsletter

Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(422)

The Collapse of Our Mythology: Can Humanity Choose What's Next? with Charles Eisenstein

The Collapse of Our Mythology: Can Humanity Choose What's Next? with Charles Eisenstein

In this episode, Nate welcomes author and philosopher, Charles Eisenstein, for a long-requested conversation on the mythologies underneath civilization. For over two decades, Charles has argued that t...

2 Sep 1h 38min

Just Stop Oil!?: The Economic Foundation We Ignore | Frankly Archives 39 (2023)

Just Stop Oil!?: The Economic Foundation We Ignore | Frankly Archives 39 (2023)

This week's Frankly is an episode from summer of 2023, which is being re-released to provide context for one of the most important questions we face today: what is the role of energy, specifically oil...

28 Aug 31min

The Psychopathic Selection Hypothesis: The Rules of the Game Keep Us Trapped with Greg Elliott | TGS 231

The Psychopathic Selection Hypothesis: The Rules of the Game Keep Us Trapped with Greg Elliott | TGS 231

Modern companies, markets, and institutions routinely behave in ways that would be diagnosed as pathological in a person: emotional detachment, strategic deception, grandiosity, and the treatment of p...

26 Aug 1h 41min

An Antidote to Despair: What Dogs Reveal About the Metacrisis | Frankly 156

An Antidote to Despair: What Dogs Reveal About the Metacrisis | Frankly 156

This week, Nate turns a late-night emergency vet visit for one of his dogs into a broader reflection on the extraordinary relationship between dogs and humans. While dogs have been human companions fo...

21 Aug 18min

Material World: The Key Resources Underpinning Modern Economies with Ed Conway | Archive TGS 127

Material World: The Key Resources Underpinning Modern Economies with Ed Conway | Archive TGS 127

Current geopolitical events continue to expose just how complex and fragile our global economic system is. As such, The Great Simplification team is re-releasing this episode with Ed Conway, which cov...

19 Aug 1h 49min

The Villains We Choose and the Work They Give Us | Frankly 155

The Villains We Choose and the Work They Give Us | Frankly 155

How can humans – at least those with access to the internet – ingest the same facts and data, yet arrive at radically different worldviews? That's the question Nate explores in this week's Frankly, wh...

14 Aug 29min

Your Anxiety Is Normal: A New Psychology for a World in Crisis with Richard Schwartz & Steffi Bednarek

Your Anxiety Is Normal: A New Psychology for a World in Crisis with Richard Schwartz & Steffi Bednarek

Most of us were taught to treat emotions like distress, numbness, and burnout as private failings to manage and move past, rather than normal responses to living within a world full of crises. The uni...

12 Aug 1h 40min

Unordinary Interventions: How to Plant Seeds for a Better Future | Frankly 154

Unordinary Interventions: How to Plant Seeds for a Better Future | Frankly 154

What can one person actually do about the metacrisis? In this week's Frankly, Nate explicitly outlines just a few of the countless actions we can take to actually change what's coming, rather than jus...

7 Aug 30min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

p3-dystopia
dumma-manniskor
allt-du-velat-veta
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
ufo-sverige
medicinvetarna
halsorevolutionen
sexet
det-morka-psyket
rss-vetenskapsradion
dumforklarat
rss-ufobortom-rimligt-tvivel
rss-spraket
ufo-sverige-2
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
rss-geopodden-2
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
rss-tidslinjen-podcast
ideer-som-forandrar-varlden
vetenskapsradion