How Tech Eats Civilization from Within

We have a large strawberry patch in the garden. Two seasons ago, it produced a lot of strawberries, but most were destroyed by slugs and snails. This season we took our 4 ducks to the garden every morning and they almost completely obliterated the slug and snail population. I think we harvested 90%+ of the strawberries that grew this year.

The ducks provide pest control, fertilizer, and eggs. We treat them like pets, so they get snacks and treats, but even with their fairly extravagant organic feed, their food costs are minimal. The "natural" approach to solving problems usually follows that pattern. It's really just grouping elements together to produce a new stable equilibrium. It seems plausible that grouping more components would yield an ever more stable system.

The "tech" solution, an engineered approach, works significantly differently. Since the components are all dead they require human labor as well as energy from some finite source to operate. They also create their own problems, e.g. needing maintenance, which spawns another ring of tech with all the same problems.

While the natural system tends to produce byproducts that are useful, e.g. the duck manure, the tech system produces harmful garbage and consumes energy.

Tech is really a vampire in disguise.