Fire to Future: The Sustainability Singularity

Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-981-9270-52-1
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 204 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

This book is an exploration of how humanity’s relationship with energy, environment, and technology has shaped the long arc of civilization, and how this trajectory will determine our future in an age of climate instability and intelligent machines. The subject of the work spans early human evolution, agricultural and industrial transitions, global development patterns, planetary boundaries, and the accelerating rise of AI-driven societies. It weaves together insights from sustainability science, anthropology, energy studies, technological forecasting, and global governance to present a unified, systems-based narrative of humanity’s past and future.

The book employs comparative historical analysis, systems thinking, conceptual modeling, and scenario-based exploration to make complex civilizational transitions accessible to a wide readership. Topics of particular interest include the evolution of human energy regimes, the emergence of modern growth systems, climate tipping points, the ethics of AI, and the author’s original Sustainability Singularity Theory (SST), a new conceptual framework explaining how environmental constraints and intelligent technologies may trigger a civilizational transformation.

The book empowers readers—scholars, policymakers, professionals, and the general public—to think critically about humanity’s next century and to envision viable strategies for navigating ecological and technological change.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dhar, Bablu Kumar

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Nachhaltigkeit
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften
• Technische Wissenschaften Energietechnik | Elektrotechnik Alternative und erneuerbare Energien
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Energie- & Versorgungswirtschaft
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PART I. FOUNDATIONS AND ORIGINS.- Chapter 1. Energy, Complexity, and Civilizational Change.- Chapter 2. Fire, Cooking, and Human Cooperation.- Chapter 3. Agriculture, Surplus, Cities, and Hierarchy.- Chapter 4. Empires, Commons, and Civilizational Collapse.- PART II. FOSSIL MODERNITY AND PLANETARY RISK.- Chapter 5. Coal, Steam, Industrialization, and Labor.- Chapter 6. Oil, Electricity, War, and World Order.- Chapter 7. The Great Acceleration and Planetary Boundaries.- Chapter 8. Inequality, Coloniality, and Energy Justice.- PART III. INTELLIGENT AND POST-CARBON TRANSITIONS.- Chapter 9. Digitalization, AI, and Cognitive Infrastructure.- Chapter 10. Renewables, Grids, Storage, and Critical Minerals.- Chapter 11. Institutions, Firms, Finance, and the Just Transition.- PART IV. THEORY, ETHICS, AND FUTURES.- Chapter 12. Sustainability Singularity Theory.- Chapter 13. Ethics, Governance, and Planetary Responsibility.- Chapter 14. Scenarios to 2100: Collapse, Transition, or Regeneration.

Über Autor(innen)

Bablu Kumar Dhar is an Associate Professor in the Business Administration Division at Mahidol University International College, Mahidol University, Thailand. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, and a Senior Researcher at ISLA Santarém – Polytechnic University, Santarém, Portugal.

His interdisciplinary research focuses on sustainability, energy transitions, ESG and responsible business, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, climate and energy policy, circular economy, sustainable finance, and business ethics. He has authored and co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, including numerous articles in Q1, AJG/ABS- and ABDC-ranked journals, and has published with major international academic publishers.

His research integrates sustainability science, strategic management, technological transformation, energy studies, and complex-systems perspectives. His conceptual work includes Sustainability Singularity Theory (SST), alongside research on green knowledge integration, ESG, climate technology, artificial intelligence, and sustainability transitions.

Dhar contributes actively to the international scholarly community through editorial and academic leadership roles with journals published by Springer Nature, Elsevier and Wiley, as well as through special issues, research collaborations, doctoral supervision, and international academic networks. He has taught and conducted academic activities in areas including Business Ethics and Sustainability, Strategic Management, International Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology and Innovation across Asia and Europe.

His research seeks to connect rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship with the major challenges shaping the future of society, including ecological limits, energy transformation, technological disruption, artificial intelligence, sustainability governance, and the evolving relationship between human civilization and planetary systems.