Social (loss of faith that "your people" will provide)
(the most critical: how a society chooses to react to the first four). 2. The Five Stages of Collapse
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond .Diamond identifies five primary pillars that determine if a society falls: Environmental damage (e.g., deforestation, soil erosion) Climate change (natural or man-made) Hostile neighbors (warfare or trade disruption) Loss of friendly trade partners
Political (loss of faith that "the government" will provide)
Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation paper (2018/2024) is highly influential in activist circles, arguing that societal collapse is now inevitable and we must shift from "mitigation" to "preparedness".
In technical fields, "Topic 5" sometimes refers to Model Collapse , where AI models trained on synthetic data eventually degrade and "collapse." A key recent paper is A Closer Look at Model Collapse (2025).
Social (loss of faith that "your people" will provide)
(the most critical: how a society chooses to react to the first four). 2. The Five Stages of Collapse 5. Collapse
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond .Diamond identifies five primary pillars that determine if a society falls: Environmental damage (e.g., deforestation, soil erosion) Climate change (natural or man-made) Hostile neighbors (warfare or trade disruption) Loss of friendly trade partners Social (loss of faith that "your people" will
Political (loss of faith that "the government" will provide) In technical fields, "Topic 5" sometimes refers to
Jem Bendell’s Deep Adaptation paper (2018/2024) is highly influential in activist circles, arguing that societal collapse is now inevitable and we must shift from "mitigation" to "preparedness".
In technical fields, "Topic 5" sometimes refers to Model Collapse , where AI models trained on synthetic data eventually degrade and "collapse." A key recent paper is A Closer Look at Model Collapse (2025).