THE GOAL OF EVOLUTION 243 



atomic and sunlight sources for his power; but in the end he 

 will be left with sunlight only. 



With only extremely thin sources of minerals and enor- 

 mously high energy requirements for their extraction, how 

 long could man carry on a worldwide industrial civilization? 

 Observers like Harrison Brown find the position very pre- 

 carious. Once the high-grade ores are nearly depleted, and 

 that day is not too far distant, any catastrophy like a world- 

 wide atomic war, or even social fatigue of the industrial 

 peoples, or decline of intelligence levels, or the extreme cost 

 and energy needs of the system would cause the collapse of 

 the industrial world, never to rise again. Some would feel 

 that in the long run the industrial type of civilization is 

 bound to end, it being far too complex and requiring too 

 great a control and leadership to survive after the ore and 

 energy problem becomes too acute. If the interlocking in- 

 dustrial network comes to an end suddenly, the disaster to 

 the machine civilization would be very great. Brown points 

 out that in such a society there is little natural resistance to 

 disease based on natural selection, too much dependence on 

 surgery in early life, and, possibly too little natural ability 

 of its women to bear children. The lack of food, vaccines, 

 antibodies, and hospitals would bring enormous havoc upon 

 such a population. It might not even survive. 



If and when the industrial civilization fails, the agrarian 

 cultures which are existing at the time would have the best 

 chance of survival. Indeed, it is most likely that the greater 

 part of man's life on this earth will be spent in this simple, 

 but greatly stable kind of society. The agrarian societies of 

 that far-distant day when the industrial complex will no 

 longer be possible will not necessarily be undesirable in their 

 main characteristics. Perhaps they will be much like the so- 

 cieties that existed in Europe up to 1750. In Brown's assess- 

 ment of the situation, the ratio of available food to total 

 population would be low. Perhaps there would be small- 

 scale manufacturing around water power sources, but 



