The energy glitch: Speculative histories and quantum counterfactuals

Abstract

Energy (in all its conceptualizations and connotations) is a glitch, a bug, an error. Energy is presented here as a roadblock in efforts to articulate and formulate a coherent physical model of the universe, as well as an impediment to achieving just and equitable social relations. Energy broke physics and broke society. This article traces conundrums and uncertainties that prevail in physics today, from the irreconcilability of quantum dynamics and gravitational spacetime to the unsatisfactory postulation of dark energy, and the profusion of probabilistic reasoning. I offer a brief history of thermodynamics and its entanglement with industrial capitalism via the steam engine. I explore alternate histories of energy (hydrodynamic and metabolic) and speculate on the potential social implications of these counterfactual trajectories. Finally, building on the novel Constructor Theory paradigm, I entertain the possibility of replacing energy with informed noticing as the undergirding architecture of physics, replacing dynamics with discernment as the underbelly of the discipline. The operation within is not to argue that the current course of energy-based physics is “incorrect,” but rather that it is problematic both for reasons of cosmological compatibility and the social disharmony it has wrought.