1177 BC – The Year Civilization Collapsed [video]

Joseph Tainter's theory (The Collapse of Complex Societies) is even more general. Societies collapse when "continued investment in complexity as a problem-solving strategy yields a declining marginal return". The idea is that initially, solutions to problems are found and society becomes more complex as a result, but the benefit of the solutions exceeds the cost of the complexity. But as the society develops, the benefit in the form of solutions to problems become smaller and the cost of servicing the additional complexity becomes larger, until the cost exceeds the benefit. Then things break down and society is forced to become a lot simpler.

To add to what others said:

The cultural collapse was so total that with writing systems disappeared. Greek had to develop reading and writing again.

We don't know why bronze era collapsed

He suggests that not one thing, but a series of disasters one after the other caused it.

The reasons: Sea People(invaders/raiders) Famine Drought Earth Quake 'Storms'

Since the societies were 'globalized' and reliant on one another, these disasters happening one after another, caused domino effect.

You should watch in full. It was really nice.

Summary:

* It is assumed that there was no single reason for the "collapse of civilization" (in Aegean, Eastern Mediterrean, Eygpt, and Near East) between ~1200-1000 BC. At the time, it seems there were droughts, famines, earthquakes, invaders, and rebellions; havoc was caused, international trade routes cut, and many cities were destroyed.

* Parallels drawn at end to modern society with exception of the migration and/or invasion of "sea people" (actually people from several areas).

* Eric then at end says that he's not in a position to provide advice for what we should do, but seems to suggest that when history runs its course, it is likely that good things come from the destruction, citing the Alphabet and monotheism as coming after the 1200-1000 BC collapse (end Bronze Age) and fresh growth coming after a large forest fire.

I think the forest fire at the end could have been left out. While I like the optimism he was trying to relay, I think that some could take it is a reason for actively trying to light the powder keg by causing further destabilization in order to bring about a renewal.

Also, the problem with comparing the dark ages then to what would happen today is that they weren't that bad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Dark_Ages

Trade was not relied on as much as it is now for food, material to build shelter, fuel for transportation, etc.

Many countries today could not become self-sufficient without a great deal of death and disease if trade routes were cut off.

And, our civilization is more at risk because we rely on electronics and electricity. If a large portion of the electronic equipment were rendered unusable by a well-coordinated set of strong EMP's/nukes going off (unlikely), a very large coronal mass ejection (more likely), or cyberattack on the electrical grid (most likely), that would disable our water, food production, hospitals, and heating/cooling. Few have the resources they need to survive or even physical books to teach themselves anything that would be useful (plants in their area that are safe to eat, how to build weapons and hunt, how to find fresh water, remedies for disease using local plants). Many have not made social connections with neighbors.

Note: EMP/CME cannot be mitigated by storing an extra phone or computer in a Faraday cage, even if you were to have a few bikes to generate electricity for it. What are you going to do with it other than use a text editor to store recipes for roasted squirrel and dandelion stew?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3838433/The-D...

http://www.federaltimes.com/articles/emerging-focus-on-cyber...

> "...much more than endless detail about pre-collapse civilizations like the Minoans."

Funny you should say that, because the author does in the book (by your description) what he describes happening in a systems collapse scenario:

[describing a systems collapse, 48:10] "It usually takes about a century, there's usually a dark age that happens right afterward. And when they're coming out of that dark age they start immortalizing the great period ... before them."