Energy

Humans rely on a few classes of scarcity resources to sustain life. Appropriate atmosphere - air - is required at all times, potable water on a daily basis, edible and hopefully healthy food, some form of protection from the environment - shelter / clothing. Without these physical, objective needs people will eventually die; while they are unavailable they tend to command the full attention of the human in lack: all effort goes towards procuring the scarce resource, and to situating one’s self to have sustainable access. And another physical resource is consumed to enable life, largely by enabling humans to more efficiently produce or accumulate these resources: energy. In this case, stored energy, or the potential to do work, accessible on demand, has emerged as another physical resource that communities of humans rely on to sustain themselves. This essay seeks to unpack the answer to one central question: what would it mean if energy were free and abundant? Energy enables three foundational capabilities, capabilities which lie at the heart of what it means to sustain life.

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