Energy Slave
Encyclopedia
An Energy Slave is that quantity of energy (ability to do work) which, when used to construct and drive non-human infrastructure
(machine
s, road
s, power grids
, fuel
, draft animals, wind-driven pumps, etc.) replaces a unit of human labour (actual work). An energy slave does the work of a person, through the consumption of energy
in the non-human infrastructure.
industrial economy
, although it could be applied anywhere that labour is produced with non-human sourced energy. It does not include the ancillary costs of damage to the environment or social structures. Formally, one Energy Slave produces one unit of human labour through the non-human tools and energy supplied by the industrial economy, and therefore 1 ES times a constant that converts to work accomplished = 1 human labour unit.
The choice to “employ” Energy Slaves is only at the margins of their total impact, so are called slaves because users receive the value produced by them as an entitlement of the society.
where that energy is being used. It is a number that can change instantaneously as the flow through of energy changes. Although this formulation is challenged by the need to decide whom to include in the count, and the massive data-keeping it would require, it is intuitively simple because we merely divide one number by the other, and guides us in thinking about the other perspective. It is suited to large blocks of a given economy and to comparisons of economies.
” view. This is to look in detail at the substitution of human labour by non-human sources of productivity
, in particular the modern industrial infrastructure of machines and services.
pickers descend from their trees and walk to the processing shed with their apples, and then return to their trees. They have produced some number of units of work. Ten other apple pickers unload their apples into an empty box, and then return to picking. The box, now full, is carried by a field tractor
to the processing shed. The work of these ten pickers plus the driver of the tractor plus all of the energy inputs have also produced that number of units of work.
The energy inputs include the life cycle share of the energy required to build and maintain that tractor and the box (called "embodied energy
"), plus the fuel
required to run it for the time occupied by bringing, placing, idling, and returning that box to the shed, plus the energy required to acquire, process, transport, and distribute that energy (more embedded energy).
The energy
used in the two systems is not defined to be equal. The ratio of the energy used to produce an energy slave’s volume of work, through machine
labour, as opposed to the energy used to produce a unit of human labor, is one of the most salient questions implicitly raised by this concept.
If we let Lw the Labour of walkers, Ln the labour of non-walkers, Ld the labour of driver, Ei the Non-human energy inputs, C the Constant to convert units of energy into units of work. Further, let 1 Ph be one person-hour.
Then given what has been said above
And therefore, since the human labour inputs equate to the energy slave units
Supposing then that work is measured in Person-hours, and supposing further that the walkers require half an hour each to go to the shed and back, that both groups take 6 minutes to fill their apple pouches, and the driver takes 30 minutes to go to and return from the shed:
Therefore
The Energy inputs (times the constant) replace 4.5 person-hours of labor. Returning to the original definition, an energy slave is the energy required to produce a unit of human labour otherwise than organically, so we need to convert these 4.5 person-hours into energy slaves.
In the original example, ten laborers produced their all-human work output in six hours. The other labourers plus their machines produced the same work in 1.5 hours of human labor. Therefore the energy slaves replaced 4.5/6.0 hours of human productivity, and there are 7.5 Energy Slaves.
The question “How many energy slaves do I have?” (
) is answered by looking at the amount of energy required to build and drive the infrastructure to support your life style (
), multiplied by Slaves per unit of energy (
). This would be expressed as
Was the caloric
expenditure of the labourers producing the person-hours less than, equal to, or greater than, the caloric energy inputs to the system? In terms of the variables used thus far, is the question if
is less or equal Ei, or bigger?
In meaningful terms, did the economy use more or less energy, by using energy slaves, than it would if it had used actual human labour? This value might be a kind of benchmark, but an economy crossing this benchmark won’t notice a qualitative difference.
, the margin of benefit for the employer and the workers must be less than 4 times the value of the work of the unassisted workers.
If energy slaves were actually free, then we would seek to shunt off as much labour as possible onto them. However, they are not free, and the cost of an energy slave, compared to the cost of human labour, may decide when to use an energy slave and when to use a person. A more interesting question than that about the calories used by the different systems is the question of the cost of each. The cost of human labour trends downward as the number of workers grows faster than the work available to support them, and as the number of energy slaves decreases per person. Meanwhile, as the cost of energy increases, the investment required to use energy slaves instead of people may become greater than the cost of people.
When someone discusses the amount of energy used to produce, harvest, transport and distribute a head of broccoli
to a store three thousand miles away, the energy used can be expressed in terms of the number of energy slaves required to do that work. Since there are so many such deeply nested costs associated with the industrial infrastructure, we need some way to resolve the energy used to build the truck, to smelt the steel
and convert petroleum
into plastics, into units of human labor. Would we directly substitute an actual person walking across the country with the head of broccoli for the truck that actually carries it for the sake of comparative productivity? Or do we just divide the units of energy used by the industrial infrastructure by the number of calories used by one person to accomplish the same task, to get energy-slaves?
People who use this term want to convey in human terms the amount of energy required to support our modern American
lifestyle. Another way to articulate this ratio is in terms of the energy required to grow food and transport it, as compared to the energy that food provides to a person. In a society with only human labor, you could not consume more energy than you produce in food. What does it mean when the energy required to produce food exceeds the food value it provides to a person? Just how much more energy than is contained in the food is acceptable? These are questions like those when using the "energy slave" unit, that need to be answered by people seeking understanding of these units.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
(machine
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
s, road
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
s, power grids
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
, fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
, draft animals, wind-driven pumps, etc.) replaces a unit of human labour (actual work). An energy slave does the work of a person, through the consumption of energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
in the non-human infrastructure.
Usage
An Energy Slave is used to compare the productivity of a person and the energy that would be required to produce that work in the modern, oil fueledOil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
industrial economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
, although it could be applied anywhere that labour is produced with non-human sourced energy. It does not include the ancillary costs of damage to the environment or social structures. Formally, one Energy Slave produces one unit of human labour through the non-human tools and energy supplied by the industrial economy, and therefore 1 ES times a constant that converts to work accomplished = 1 human labour unit.
The choice to “employ” Energy Slaves is only at the margins of their total impact, so are called slaves because users receive the value produced by them as an entitlement of the society.
Macro view
One way to look at an Energy Slave might be called the “macro” view. This is to look at the total flow through of energy divided by the number of persons being supported by the infrastructureInfrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
where that energy is being used. It is a number that can change instantaneously as the flow through of energy changes. Although this formulation is challenged by the need to decide whom to include in the count, and the massive data-keeping it would require, it is intuitively simple because we merely divide one number by the other, and guides us in thinking about the other perspective. It is suited to large blocks of a given economy and to comparisons of economies.
Micro view
Another way to look at the Energy Slave might be called the “microMicroeconomics
Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of how the individual modern household and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources. Typically, it applies to markets where goods or services are being bought and sold...
” view. This is to look in detail at the substitution of human labour by non-human sources of productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
, in particular the modern industrial infrastructure of machines and services.
Energy expenditure
As a very simple example, ten appleApple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
pickers descend from their trees and walk to the processing shed with their apples, and then return to their trees. They have produced some number of units of work. Ten other apple pickers unload their apples into an empty box, and then return to picking. The box, now full, is carried by a field tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
to the processing shed. The work of these ten pickers plus the driver of the tractor plus all of the energy inputs have also produced that number of units of work.
The energy inputs include the life cycle share of the energy required to build and maintain that tractor and the box (called "embodied energy
Embodied energy
Embodied energy is defined as the sum of energy inputs that was used in the work to make any product, from the point of extraction and refining materials, bringing it to market, and disposal / re-purposing of it...
"), plus the fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
required to run it for the time occupied by bringing, placing, idling, and returning that box to the shed, plus the energy required to acquire, process, transport, and distribute that energy (more embedded energy).
The energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
used in the two systems is not defined to be equal. The ratio of the energy used to produce an energy slave’s volume of work, through machine
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
labour, as opposed to the energy used to produce a unit of human labor, is one of the most salient questions implicitly raised by this concept.
If we let Lw the Labour of walkers, Ln the labour of non-walkers, Ld the labour of driver, Ei the Non-human energy inputs, C the Constant to convert units of energy into units of work. Further, let 1 Ph be one person-hour.
Then given what has been said above
And therefore, since the human labour inputs equate to the energy slave units
Supposing then that work is measured in Person-hours, and supposing further that the walkers require half an hour each to go to the shed and back, that both groups take 6 minutes to fill their apple pouches, and the driver takes 30 minutes to go to and return from the shed:
Therefore
The Energy inputs (times the constant) replace 4.5 person-hours of labor. Returning to the original definition, an energy slave is the energy required to produce a unit of human labour otherwise than organically, so we need to convert these 4.5 person-hours into energy slaves.
In the original example, ten laborers produced their all-human work output in six hours. The other labourers plus their machines produced the same work in 1.5 hours of human labor. Therefore the energy slaves replaced 4.5/6.0 hours of human productivity, and there are 7.5 Energy Slaves.
The question “How many energy slaves do I have?” (
) is answered by looking at the amount of energy required to build and drive the infrastructure to support your life style (), multiplied by Slaves per unit of energy (). This would be expressed asQuestions
One of the questions that arises is:Was the caloric
Calorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
expenditure of the labourers producing the person-hours less than, equal to, or greater than, the caloric energy inputs to the system? In terms of the variables used thus far, is the question if
is less or equal Ei, or bigger?In meaningful terms, did the economy use more or less energy, by using energy slaves, than it would if it had used actual human labour? This value might be a kind of benchmark, but an economy crossing this benchmark won’t notice a qualitative difference.
Implications
The implication of the energy slave unit is that each of the workers who did not walk were able to return to picking apples, and therefore increase their personal productivity. Doing the labor of 10 persons with 2.5 persons worth of work (10-7.5), the labourers with Energy Slaves can produce 10/2.5, or 4 times, as much work, in the same amount of time. Their personal wealth, and/or that of their employer, can be expected to increase; however, because of the huge energy investment behind the infrastructureInfrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, the margin of benefit for the employer and the workers must be less than 4 times the value of the work of the unassisted workers.
If energy slaves were actually free, then we would seek to shunt off as much labour as possible onto them. However, they are not free, and the cost of an energy slave, compared to the cost of human labour, may decide when to use an energy slave and when to use a person. A more interesting question than that about the calories used by the different systems is the question of the cost of each. The cost of human labour trends downward as the number of workers grows faster than the work available to support them, and as the number of energy slaves decreases per person. Meanwhile, as the cost of energy increases, the investment required to use energy slaves instead of people may become greater than the cost of people.
When someone discusses the amount of energy used to produce, harvest, transport and distribute a head of broccoli
Broccoli
Broccoli is a plant in the cabbage family, whose large flower head is used as a vegetable.-General:The word broccoli, from the Italian plural of , refers to "the flowering top of a cabbage"....
to a store three thousand miles away, the energy used can be expressed in terms of the number of energy slaves required to do that work. Since there are so many such deeply nested costs associated with the industrial infrastructure, we need some way to resolve the energy used to build the truck, to smelt the steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and convert petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
into plastics, into units of human labor. Would we directly substitute an actual person walking across the country with the head of broccoli for the truck that actually carries it for the sake of comparative productivity? Or do we just divide the units of energy used by the industrial infrastructure by the number of calories used by one person to accomplish the same task, to get energy-slaves?
People who use this term want to convey in human terms the amount of energy required to support our modern American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lifestyle. Another way to articulate this ratio is in terms of the energy required to grow food and transport it, as compared to the energy that food provides to a person. In a society with only human labor, you could not consume more energy than you produce in food. What does it mean when the energy required to produce food exceeds the food value it provides to a person? Just how much more energy than is contained in the food is acceptable? These are questions like those when using the "energy slave" unit, that need to be answered by people seeking understanding of these units.
External links
- How much of a slave master am I ? by Jean-Marc Jancovici