Relatively Speaking

In Quantum Sustainability, our new equation is E²=MC

I understand Quantum Physics as well as the next person. Meaning, that if something happens over here, it also happens over there, and these two things may be connected across space and time. I think that’s the sum total of my dissertation.

The IFTTT (IF This Then That) app explains this process in practical terms of triggers and actions, but my interest here is more esoteric.

Quantum Physics used to be the stuff of New Age mystics, sitting alongside ‘manifestation’ and ‘the law of attraction’, but I believe that bona fide scientists are now also involved. They may even have come up with the idea in the first place.

And then there’s Relativity, which I believe is the opposite of Quantum Physics. Whereas the former posits definite, continuous flows, the latter is about probabilistic jumps, which may or may not happen. Such uncertainty allows me to manipulate the famous equation of E=MC²

I propose the following equation for Quantum Sustainability: E²=MC (or maybe 2E=MC)

The first E is Economics. The second E is Ecosystem. And MC stands for Modern Capitalism.

Before I am accused of being a crackpot social scientist, allow me to explain my logic. We no longer live in an age of unlimited resources and of doing whatever we like to our fellow human beings. By behaving irresponsibly, we damage our common home irreversibly. We destroy nature’s systems and also undermine human ‘social ecologies’.

In an attempt to limit their damage, some progressive companies are shifting their focus from short-term to long-term goals, for example: Unilever moving from quarterly to annual financial reporting. They know that in the long-term, the only real value will be sustainable value. Anything else will be fleeting and will be discounted eventually by their accountants to zilch. The company’s value will no longer exist.

Hence the only form of viable capitalism will be one that includes Economics and (natural and social) Ecology. These are E² of my equation above. I know it’s a stretch, but I did what I needed to make things work.

In the same way, companies will soon have no choice but to stretch themselves, way out of their comfort zones into the world of Quantum Sustainability. It’s quite possible that they are already there – in their Stretch Zones and Panic Zones simultaneously.

Hardin spoke of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’, meaning that public resources get exploited and suffer eventually. This doesn’t have to be the case if we behave as responsible Citizen Scientists of the Quantum realm.