POSTMODERN SOLUTIONS for A POST-COLLAPSE WORLD Humans are cultural animals. Culture is what makes us human. For over 2 million years, we have used culture to capture energy and create a buffer between ourselves and the physical environment. For over 10,000 years, we have used agriculture to capture even more energy and spread around the globe. For over 5,000 years we have used culture to create complex societies and civilizations. However, for the last 150 years we have been using cheap oil energy to replace culture in daily life. Instead of solving problems with cultural behaviors we just throw more cheap oil energy at whatever comes up. Now that oil is becoming scarce and expensive, we are faced with a dilemma. Soon the laws of physics will confront us directly, without the cushion of cheap oil and without a robust cultural buffer. What in the world are we going to do? Walter Haugen has spent over 45 years analyzing this problem and developing solutions. First we need to change our paradigm from wasteful reliance on fossil fuel energy. Then we need to take positive steps to fulfill our needs with lowered energy inputs. We can do this by rediscovering the most efficient engine we have - the human body. Not only can we do tremendous amounts of work with low food energy inputs, we can also leverage the positive feedback loop of using the human engine to grow its own fuel. Then we can say with some satisfaction, "The laws of physics are on OUR side."