After the discussion in the Black Swan thread, I was reminded of James Burke's old series Connections. The series is about history and how things are connected.
The first episode, though, is a great thought-provoker about how specialized modern people are, and how vulnerable we are to sudden collapse.
Each part is about ten minutes. If you're in a hurry, skip a couple minutes into part 3 for the doomer section.
A quote from part 3, where Burke begins to sum up his argument:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')e wait for technology to save our lives. Because it's inconceivable that it won't. And if you admit that, you've got to admit that every day of your life, you walk yourself into a technology trap. Because that's the only way to live in the modern world. So you don't admit it. But what happens when the effects become widespread, irreversabile, devastating? What happens when what little resources you have to help you cope give up?






