Kloor quotes from the email Joseph Tainter sent him, after pointing out Tainter was referred to in the then unpublished paper, that Tainter himself unequivocally distanced himself from the paper. In his email Tainter is quoted as saying “Models depend on the assumptions that go into them.” This is an expert on the collapse of modern societies distancing himself from a paper that is positing a possible collapse of the present society (hmmm, which one?) pretty much saying some of us tend to see things happening based on what we happen to be thinking about at the moment.
