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Unit 1 White‟s Law
Listening Comprehension
White's law, named after the famous anthropologist Leslie White, is a theory which attempts
to explain how the availability of energy affects the speed of advancement in civilization. The
theory is complex, but it can be simplified into the following statement. White's law basically
states that civilization evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per person is increased, or
as the efficiency of energy usage is increased.
The basic assumption of White's law is that out of the three major aspects of civilization
(technological, sociological, and ideological), the technological aspect plays the primary role in
driving the evolution of civilization. White thought that the purpose of all technology is to help
overcome the challenges of survival. Farming technology provides us with greater amounts of
food, and housing technology provides us with shelter. Since all technology requires some
form of energy to operate, greater amounts of energy should allow us to use greater amounts
of technology, which in turn should allow society to advance more. The same would be true of
more efficient energy usage. If technology is created that uses less energy, that should have
the same basic effect as increasing the total amount of energy available.
White distinguished five different stages in the evolution of civilization, according to the
different forms of energy used to power technology. In the first stage, energy is provided by
our own muscles. Humans in this stage of development must do all of their own work. In the
second stage of development, humans begin to use animals to power their technology, as a
farmer does when he uses a horse to pull his plow. The third stage occurs when humans
begin to use plants as a source of power. White identified this stage with a huge increase in
the efficiency of farming. In the fourth stage, humans begin to rely on natural resources such
as coal and oil as their primary source of energy. In the final stage, nuclear power is utilized
to provide energy.
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Listening Comprehension
White's law, named after the famous anthropologist Leslie White, is a theory which attempts
to explain how the availability of energy affects the speed of advancement in civilization. The
theory is complex, but it can be simplified into the following statement. White's law basically
states that civilization evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per person is increased, or
as the efficiency of energy usage is increased.
The basic assumption of White's law is that out of the three major aspects of civilization
(technological, sociological, and ideological), the technological aspect plays the primary role in
driving the evolution of civilization. White thought that the purpose of all technology is to help
overcome the challenges of survival. Farming technology provides us with greater amounts of
food, and housing technology provides us with shelter. Since all technology requires some
form of energy to operate, greater amounts of energy should allow us to use greater amounts
of technology, which in turn should allow society to advance more. The same would be true of
more efficient energy usage. If technology is created that uses less energy, that should have
the same basic effect as increasing the total amount of energy available.
White distinguished five different stages in the evolution of civilization, according to the
different forms of energy used to power technology. In the first stage, energy is provided by
our own muscles. Humans in this stage of development must do all of their own work. In the
second stage of development, humans begin to use animals to power their technology, as a
farmer does when he uses a horse to pull his plow. The third stage occurs when humans
begin to use plants as a source of power. White identified this stage with a huge increase in
the efficiency of farming. In the fourth stage, humans begin to rely on natural resources such
as coal and oil as their primary source of energy. In the final stage, nuclear power is utilized
to provide energy.
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