Stirred by the Sun – Human Molecules in Motion

The radiation of energy released from the Sun, perturbations in space, impact the biosphere, elevating electrons that had settled into their relative ground states. The universe doesn’t allow them to stay in an excited state and the biochemistry of plant cells pinball them through various molecular machinery to maintain the order that is itself. When the electron is finally settled and the initial visible light energy is exhausted as infrared waves, the cell has among other things created more fuel, glucose and later ATP. But even though the electron has reached a new ground state and infrared has been radiated, some of the energy is stored for later use and continued journey to a lower energy state, notably from ATP to ADP.

If you could see the transmission of energy from the Sun through space, it might look something like this before it interacts with an electron associated with matter.

The conversion of ATP to ADP serves many metabolic energy needs. A major one is muscle contraction in which ATP is converted to ADP in synchrony in the contraction of muscle fibers. Overall, the contraction of muscle fibers cannot be occur without a goal, a goal that emanates from the brain. The primary goal must be to acquire energy, mostly through the ingestion of tissues of other animals to create glucose to reset ADP to ATP at the mitochondrion. There is no choice. Life is a constant feeding and replenishment cycle and human behavior is no different in essence than the electron taking a circuitous route back to its ground state. The human is specified to walk the earth searching for energy to serve its own cellular needs. If the human behavior fails to eat, then the body will consume its own capital of tissues before death.

Glucose, which was created by the impact of the visible light radiation above is used as a feedstock at the mitochondrion to spring-load ADP with a high-energy phosphate, like the ball launcher of a pinball machine.

Once the ball launcher is released or the ATP is converted to ADP then often muscles contract and things move, like humans. By releasing the phosphate from the ATP the human is obligated to reload the spring and therefore their behavior is somewhat circumscribed to seeking energy.

Once it’s released, the pinball or a human life is in motion and must avoid falling to its lowest energy state. To do so it must stay energized. The pinball machine uses flippers to keep the animation going as long as possible. The human uses brain, legs, arms etc. and ATP to propel itself to the next energizing meal. Dopamine and memory reinforcing opioid action help the organism find the next meal.

And that is why the human experience is one of greed and self-promotion. It’s not really a choice, but a feature as each human dissipative structure pinballs through life from one location to another, working the technological machinery and working other humans and animals so that they may eat again. And this is also why humans are so intent on saving wealth, so as to never run out of the essential energy. Evolution and the universe wouldn’t have it any other way. The base human wealth of carbohydrates is seen as interchangeable with the wealth of hydrocarbons since the latter is a coequal fuel in the human technological system. The human that is a technological RNA eats carbohydrates and the greater technological system eats hydrocarbons, many of which are expended to foster the production of an adequate supply of carbohydrates. It’s been posited that ten calories worth of hydrocarbons are used to create one calorie of carbohydrate for human consumption.

A human picks-up an energy package while their technological transport vesicle burns hydrocarbons. The human will be reloading their ADP to ATP and be on their way until another refueling is called for by low blood glucose and hunger. (AP Photo/David Duprey

The technological system in which humans are enmeshed uses hydrocarbons instead of carbohydrates to drive its processes. The technological system must also constantly search for hydrocarbons and through their combustion, similar to muscles, things are moved. Gases expand, pistons move, crank shafts crank and wheels turn. Much of the movement is dedicated to producing and delivering hydrocarbons to the human RNA that work within its cells and to maintaining homeostatic environments for them to reside. One particularly important hydrocarbon is diesel (C16H34). It makes all types of things move like trucks, trains, tractors and even ships (bunker fuel) and of course its cousins, gasoline and aviation fuel, create much more movement, although somewhat less productive. The carbohydrate glucose (C6H12O6) is the ingredient for making ATP which in turn makes humans move.

This train moves by releasing energy from the bonds of diesel molecules to run a generator that creates electricity that powers its wheels. The electricity is much like the individual photon, a perturbation of the electromagnetic space, except much larger in scale. The combustion products are mostly CO2 and H2O which can be recycled into glucose in a plant cell. Biodiesel can be made from the carbohydrates of plants. The energy of diesel fuel is so dense that it only takes a couple of gallons to propel two large locomotives and four full coal hoppers) one mile down the track.

All of the movement of humans and technology can be thought of as a complex circuit running from the Sun, through the earth’s biosphere and back into space. The fossil fuels had acted as a long-term capacitor which is now being depleted by the human RNA with their technological tools. The circuit back into space is finally completed. As the capacitor is depleted so too will be the amount of technological mass that can be moved around (factories, cars, tractors, trucks, trains etc.) and human acquisition of carbohydrates (proteins and other nutrients) will no longer be adequately supported. There may even be an intentional effort underway to collapse the system to allow a provisioning of a much smaller population with an equally small hydrocarbon and carbohydrate budget. It’s hard to imagine what this might look like, but the World Economic Forum has provided some hints with 15-minute cities, own nothing and be happy and absolute control of individual energy production and consumption.

If there is one thing Klaus Schwab knows for certain, it’s that we won’t be returning to our past ways. The details are yet to be determined.

The free-wheeling days of growth and consumption are coming to an end and as Bill Gates said, “They won’t do it voluntarily.” I think he’s right about that since the human dissipative is programmed by evolution to want more and to compete for more and any impediment is seen as a threat to life and liberty. Since the changes will not be readily accepted, they are being imposed. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t be resisted at each step along the way or that the entire “Great Reset” program won’t fail. Either way, there is failure of one sort or another in civilization’s future simply due to lack of energy and the inevitable retreat of technological, hydrocarbon agriculture.

And this is the way the energy leaves, whatever isn’t still stored in molecular bonds, much the same way it arrived except at a longer, less energetic, infrared wavelength.