Re: Collapse of complex societies
I didn't listen to all of them, so let me know if I've missed something key. It seems to be that our modern society is orders of magnitude more complex than some of the others in history used as examples, and we've held out fairly well. One of the things that goes through my mind when looking at New York City is marvel that it even works at all. On the other hand, I think we're a lot more vulnerable to having particular technological keystones pulled out.
Tainter would not be the first person to note that cheap and abundant energy is the key to advanced civilization working. Jerry Pournelle points it out constantly.