Let me come right out and say it:
All life requires energy to function.
The Maximum Power Principle says: During self-organization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency.
The MPP has caused energy-seeking behaviour to be embedded in our genetic code through natural selection, as it has done for all life over the last three billion years. That genetic heritage then shapes our individual and group behaviour by shaping the core of human psychology, embedding the MPP in all our actions. Our behaviour in turn shapes all human societies from tribes to civilizations. The end result of this chain of influence is that the MPP is embedded at the very foundation of every human action and institution, deep below the level of conscious perception.
This genetic chain of effects guarantees that virtually all the actions we take as individuals, groups, societies and civilizations work directly or indirectly towards fulfilling the imperative of the Maximum Power Principle. Because it works at the instinctual level, we aren't conscious of its operation. Instead, we ascribe all our actions to conscious impulses, to the rationalizations that let us feel we are in control of our destiny.
Because we aren't aware of the real reason we act and react the way we do, we are at a loss to explain why we can't seem to get a handle on our growing energy use, on climate change, on our skyrocketing consumption, on population growth. Instead, our rationalizations convince us that the solution is to be found in yet more growth.
Our politicians and pundits act as the guardians of this system of toxic growth, touting jobs over the environment; proclaiming that by just doing more things differently we can escape the trap of just doing more things; bemoaning any sign of falling birth rates or fading consumption; and above all reassuring us that using ever more energy is the answer. And because our thoughts are shaped by this very same genetic imperative, we believe them...
More windmills, anyone? Perhaps there's a few nuclear plants in our future. Here, buy another, faster car - hey, it's partly electric! Be a good parent - make sure your children have a better, more energy-rich life than you did. A yearly Caribbean vacation is a very cheap, effective status symbol, you know. Nice wedding - now when are you going to give us our next grandchild? When are you going to get that raise? Damn, I hope there isn't a recession this year, the GDP has to keep growing if we're going to survive. At least the brownouts have stopped ever since the shale gas came in. Why doesn't somebody do something about global warming? You know it's just greedy oil executives that get in the way. Wow, did you see the pictures of all that pollution in China? How can they live like that? But at least their economy is booming. It'll be a lovely day when this haze clears - let's go for a drive...
The Maximum Power Principle says that during self-organization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency. But hey, what do those egghead ecologists know about the price of coal in China?
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