The superorganism
The concept of humans as a superorganism suggests that humanity, much like other complex biological systems, functions collectively as a single, integrated entity rather than just as a collection of individuals. A superorganism is a system made up of many individual organisms that work together in a coordinated way, much like how the cells in a body operate together to sustain the larger organism. In this view, human society has evolved into a highly interdependent network, driven by cooperation, communication, and shared energy use, where the actions of individuals are deeply intertwined with the function and survival of the whole.
This analogy to a superorganism becomes clearer when examining the way modern human societies are structured. As individuals, humans rely on vast, interconnected systems to meet their basic needs—food, water, shelter, energy, and information. No person in a modern society can produce everything they need to survive; instead, they participate in a global network of exchange, specialization, and consumption. Just as the cells in a body cannot function independently of the organism, humans today cannot function in isolation. This collective behavior, where each person plays a role in the larger system, resembles the way a superorganism operates.
A defining characteristic of superorganisms is the efficient use and distribution of energy. In human societies, energy plays a fundamental role in binding the system together, just as in biological superorganisms like ant colonies or bee hives. For instance, the energy consumed by humans—from food to fuel—drives the global economy, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and communication networks that keep societies functioning. Our reliance on fossil fuels, electricity grids, and global supply chains highlights how deeply interconnected we are in terms of energy dependence. Energy is shared and distributed across this vast network to sustain the superorganism's growth and function.
The technological and economic systems that humans have created can also be viewed through the lens of a superorganism. The internet, for example, acts as the nervous system of this collective entity, transmitting information rapidly across the globe. Economic systems, transportation infrastructure, and communications networks act as the circulatory and skeletal systems, enabling the flow of goods, resources, and knowledge that keep the superorganism alive. Each of these systems allows individuals to contribute to and benefit from the larger collective, amplifying the power and capabilities of the whole.
Furthermore, the idea of humanity as a superorganism becomes even more apparent when considering large-scale, coordinated behaviors such as urbanization, globalization, and technological innovation. Urban centers, with their dense concentrations of people, resources, and energy, resemble the complex, specialized structures within biological organisms, where different parts work in harmony for the collective good. Globalization has further unified humanity, creating interdependent relationships between countries and regions, much like the specialized roles of different organs in a body. Economic and political systems, despite their complexity and competition, function together in a way that shapes the trajectory of the entire human species.
However, just like any other superorganism, the human superorganism has its vulnerabilities. The rapid growth and interdependence of human systems have led to unsustainable energy consumption, environmental degradation, and resource depletion. This has raised questions about whether the superorganism can continue to function as it currently does without collapsing under the weight of its own complexity. The challenge of climate change, for example, poses a significant threat to the continued survival of the human superorganism, as it disrupts the delicate balance of energy flows and resources needed to sustain modern civilization.
Moreover, human behavior within this superorganism is often driven by individual incentives rather than collective well-being. Unlike biological superorganisms, where every component functions with the survival of the whole in mind, human society is fragmented by competing interests and inequalities. This divergence from the more harmonious functioning of natural superorganisms can create systemic risks, such as overconsumption, economic instability, and environmental collapse.
This superorganism is driven by the availability of energy.
Energy is often described as the currency of life, driving both biological processes and societal development. From the tiniest microorganisms to the largest civilizations, the availability and flow of energy are what power existence. In nature, every living being is an energy consumer, constantly in search of food, sunlight, or other energy sources to fuel growth and reproduction. This biological drive to harness energy forms the basis of ecosystems, where life competes, cooperates, and evolves through the manipulation of energy sources.
Historically, the climate of Earth has gone through dramatic shifts, but around 12,000 years ago, the climate stabilized and warmed after the last Ice Age. This stabilization was crucial for the development of human agriculture, which became a transformative step in human history. With a more predictable climate and the ability to farm, humans could produce more food than they immediately consumed. This created the first large-scale energy surplus in the form of stored crops, which allowed societies to grow and diversify their activities beyond simple survival.
The agricultural revolution meant that, for the first time, humans controlled a surplus of energy in the form of caloric food. It propelled population growth, societal complexity, and eventually urbanization. This energy surplus laid the groundwork for the rise of civilizations and the technological innovations that followed.
While agricultural surplus created an initial wave of human development, the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—unleashed unprecedented energy access. Since the early 19th century, humans have been using stored fossil energy at an unsustainable pace, extracting energy that was sequestered over millions of years and burning it at rates around 10 million times faster than it was formed.
Fossil fuels provided such a high energy return that they revolutionized every aspect of human life. One barrel of oil, for example, contains the equivalent energy of about five years of human labor. This shift to fossil fuels transformed not only industry and transportation but also agriculture, as machines replaced human and animal labor, massively increasing productivity.
Despite the critical importance of energy to the economy, economists tend to treat energy consumption like interest rather than principle. Economic models often ignore or downplay the role of energy as a fundamental input. Instead, they focus on capital and labor, assuming that energy use is simply a byproduct of economic activity rather than the foundational fuel. This disconnect leads to a dangerous misconception: that we can endlessly grow GDP and wealth while decoupling from energy consumption.
The idea that economic growth can decouple from energy use is a widely held assumption in modern economic theory. However, this is fundamentally flawed. GDP growth is tightly linked to energy consumption, and the higher the energy input, the higher the potential for economic growth. When we treat energy like interest—an external input that is easily replaceable—we ignore the reality that it is the principle, the bedrock, upon which all economic activity rests.
Importantly, there is no true substitute for energy. While we may shift from one energy source to another (e.g., from coal to renewables), the need for vast amounts of energy remains constant. Technology can improve energy efficiency but cannot eliminate the need for energy. The global economy and the technologies that drive modern society are entirely dependent on a continuous and growing energy supply.
Economic systems that rely on continuous growth, like the current financial system, are thus bound by the limits of energy availability. Growth requires more energy, and without it, economies falter. Central banks are acutely aware of this, which is why, in times of financial strain, they resort to inflating their balance sheets to keep the system going. This is a temporary fix that cannot solve the underlying issue: growth cannot continue without increasing energy consumption.
The fundamental problem with that system is the reliance on oil, coal, and gas, which are finite and being consumed far faster than they can be replenished. Despite the urgent need for a transition, renewable energy sources like wind and solar are not being developed quickly enough to replace fossil fuels at the scale necessary to maintain economic growth. This delayed shift is essentially kicking the can down the road, postponing the inevitable consequences of unsustainable energy consumption without addressing the core issues.
The interconnected concepts of the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics, Kleiber’s Law, and Dunbar’s Number reveal how human energy use has expanded alongside the complexity of human societies. The so-called Fourth Law, often referred to as the Maximum Power Principle, suggests that systems evolve to maximize energy throughput, which can be seen in the development of human civilizations. From the advent of agriculture to the industrial revolution, humans have continually found ways to harness more energy at faster rates, driving societal growth and technological innovation. Kleiber’s Law, which originally applied to biological organisms, can also be applied to human societies, demonstrating that as societies grow larger, their total energy consumption increases, though they tend to use energy more efficiently on a per capita basis. However, this efficiency comes with increased dependency on vast and stable energy sources, necessary to support the complex, interconnected systems that define modern life. Dunbar’s Number, which posits a cognitive limit on the number of stable social relationships humans can maintain, points to the scale at which societies have grown. Early human communities, limited by this cognitive constraint, had relatively low energy demands. As societies expanded beyond these small groups, however, innovations in technology and social organization increased energy needs exponentially. Large, complex networks of cities, industries, and global trade now require immense energy inputs to maintain, far beyond the needs of small-scale social groups.
Through this, human energy consumption has had a profound impact on the planet. The large-scale exploitation of fossil fuels, coupled with industrial agriculture and deforestation, has drastically reshaped ecosystems, altered the climate, and introduced long-lasting environmental consequences. Human energy use, especially since the industrial era, has been so significant that it has fundamentally changed the Earth’s atmospheric and ecological balance.
Exosomatic energy refers to the energy that humans harness from external sources, beyond the energy produced by their own bodies. Unlike animals that rely almost entirely on their own metabolic energy to survive, humans have developed sophisticated methods to capture and utilize vast amounts of external energy. This exosomatic energy powers everything from transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture to household appliances and personal electronics. It has enabled human societies to expand and become far more complex than any other species on Earth.
In terms of scale, the average American today consumes an astounding 200,000 kilocalories (kcals) of energy per day when accounting for all external energy sources. This is over 80 times the energy an individual human requires just to survive, as basic metabolic needs only require about 2,500 kcals per day. This excess energy use comes from the vast infrastructure of energy-intensive systems that support modern life—fossil fuel-powered vehicles, electricity grids, industrial farming, and more. Exosomatic energy is what drives the modern world, making large-scale transportation, industry, and global trade possible.
The sheer amount of energy humans now consume globally is staggering. We use approximately 100 billion barrel equivalents of oil, coal, and natural gas annually to fuel our societies. This quantity of energy is roughly equivalent to the labor of 500 billion human workers. In other words, without the use of fossil fuels, it would take 500 billion human laborers, working every day, to generate the same amount of energy that we currently get from these fossil fuel sources. This reliance on fossil fuels for exosomatic energy has allowed human societies to grow rapidly, but it also raises pressing questions about sustainability, given that fossil fuel reserves are finite and their continued use contributes to environmental degradation and climate change.
The massive scale of exosomatic energy consumption underscores how dependent modern societies are on external energy sources. It also highlights the challenge we face in transitioning to renewable energy sources at a scale sufficient to replace fossil fuels. The energy we harness today is crucial for maintaining the infrastructure of modern life, but finding ways to sustain this energy consumption without exhausting natural resources or exacerbating the climate crisis will be one of the defining challenges of the coming decades.
In addition to this, humans, along with the livestock they raise, now account for an astonishing 98% of the total mammal biomass on Earth. This figure is a stark indicator of how profoundly human activity has reshaped the planet's ecosystems and species composition. The total biomass of humans and their domesticated animals is approximately 700% greater than what it was 10,000 years ago, just before the advent of agriculture. At that time, the Earth’s mammal biomass consisted largely of wild species, and human populations were small, scattered, and sustained by hunting and gathering. Today, human expansion and industrial-scale agriculture have not only displaced wild animals but also reconfigured the entire planet's energy and ecological systems.
For most of human history, their food system was a net energy producer. Early agricultural systems and hunter-gatherer societies expended energy in the form of human and animal labor, but they generally produced more calories in food than the energy required to harvest it. This surplus of food energy allowed human populations to grow, settle in one place, and build civilizations. However, in modern times, the food system has become a massive net energy sinkhole. Industrialized agriculture now consumes far more energy than it produces.
Today, for every calorie of food produced, the global food system uses about 10 calories of energy, primarily from fossil fuels. This massive energy imbalance stems from multiple sources: mechanized farming, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, transportation, refrigeration, and food processing. Modern agricultural practices rely heavily on exosomatic energy—energy from external sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas—rather than on the energy produced by human or animal labor. Fertilizer production alone is incredibly energy-intensive, as it relies on the Haber-Bosch process, which consumes significant amounts of natural gas. The transport of food from farms to urban centers and across international borders further increases energy consumption, often involving energy expenditures that far exceed the caloric content of the food being transported.
This shift from a net energy-producing food system to a net energy-consuming one highlights the inefficiencies of modern industrial agriculture. The food system, designed to produce food for billions of people, now consumes vastly more energy than the energy it supplies in return. This energy imbalance is unsustainable in the long term, especially considering our reliance on finite fossil fuels. Moreover, the environmental costs of this energy use—including greenhouse gas emissions, habitat destruction, and water depletion—are compounding the current ecological crisis.
This imbalance in the food system mirrors a larger pattern seen across the global economy, where energy consumption has become tightly linked to growth and development. Just as industrial agriculture now consumes more energy than it produces, the broader economic system relies heavily on increasing energy inputs to sustain its expansion. Over the past 50 years, the global economy has grown significantly, but this growth has come with a parallel rise in energy consumption, demonstrating the inextricable connection between economic output and energy use. The challenges faced in the agricultural sector are emblematic of the broader issue of energy dependency that permeates every aspect of modern life, from manufacturing to transportation, all of which rely on a constant, and often unsustainable, supply of energy.
Over the past 50 years, global GDP has grown by approximately 100%, while energy consumption has increased by 99%, highlighting the tight link between economic growth and energy use. Despite efforts to decouple energy consumption from economic output, energy remains a fundamental driver of economic activity. The close correlation between GDP and energy consumption is a reflection of how economies are built on the availability and use of energy, whether in the form of fossil fuels, renewables, or other sources. Every sector of the economy—from manufacturing to services to transportation—depends on a steady and growing supply of energy.
Some countries have managed to reduce their energy intensity—measured as energy use per unit of GDP—by optimizing production processes, increasing energy efficiency, and shifting away from energy-intensive industries. This reduction in energy intensity is often associated with economies transitioning from heavy industries (like manufacturing) to service-oriented sectors. In some cases, countries have achieved this by relying on imports for energy-intensive goods rather than producing them domestically. By outsourcing manufacturing to other nations with lower labor and energy costs, these countries can report a decrease in energy intensity without actually reducing their overall energy footprint. This export-import dynamic can give the illusion of decoupling, but the energy demand simply shifts to other parts of the global economy.
Globally, however, GDP remains tightly coupled to energy consumption. The world’s economy still relies heavily on the availability of cheap and abundant energy, particularly from fossil fuels. Even as some countries reduce their domestic energy use, the global system as a whole continues to require ever-increasing amounts of energy to sustain growth. Emerging economies are also contributing to rising energy demand as they expand industrially and seek to improve living standards. As a result, global energy consumption rises in tandem with GDP, despite regional variations.
Financial manipulation and technological innovations have also contributed to the perception of decoupling between energy and GDP. For instance, the use of financial instruments like quantitative easing and debt-financed growth can inflate GDP figures without necessarily reflecting a corresponding increase in energy consumption. These financial mechanisms, while effective in maintaining short-term economic stability, create an illusion of decoupling by boosting GDP through monetary policy rather than through real economic productivity. However, this decoupling is superficial, as the economy’s underlying structure remains dependent on energy to function in the long run.
Wide boundary thinking is critical in understanding the true relationship between energy and GDP. It means considering not only direct energy consumption but also the broader energy inputs embedded in global supply chains, trade, and consumption patterns. When countries import goods, they are also importing the energy used to produce and transport those goods. A narrow focus on national energy consumption can obscure the full scope of energy dependencies. By thinking in wider boundaries, one can see that even as some countries reduce their direct energy use, they are still part of an energy-intensive global economy. The true scale of energy consumption must account for the full life cycle of products, services, and industrial processes, as well as the energy used in financial and logistical networks that sustain global trade.
While certain economies have reduced their energy intensity through efficiency measures and offshoring production, global GDP remains closely linked to energy consumption. Financial manipulation can temporarily obscure this relationship, but energy is ultimately a fundamental driver of economic growth. By adopting wide boundary thinking, it becomes clear that the global economy is still heavily reliant on energy, and efforts to decouple growth from energy use must account for the complex, interconnected nature of modern economies.
Jevons Paradox is a concept that reveals the unintended consequences of increasing efficiency in resource use. This paradox suggests that as technological advancements make the use of a resource more efficient, the demand for that resource may actually increase, not decrease. This is because improved efficiency reduces the cost of using the resource, leading to broader use across more industries and applications. For example, advancements in fuel efficiency for cars may lead to cheaper driving costs, encouraging more people to drive farther, which paradoxically increases overall fuel consumption. Jevons Paradox is particularly relevant in discussions about energy efficiency, as improvements in efficiency are often offset by increased energy consumption on a larger scale, limiting the impact of these advances in curbing overall energy use.
When technological innovation is examined through this lens, technology can be divided into two broad categories: those that enhance energy efficiency (such as electric vehicles or more efficient industrial processes) and those that expand energy consumption (such as new computing platforms, increased automation, or emerging industries). While the first category aims to use energy more wisely, the second often leads to new demands for energy. In many cases, innovations that promise energy savings end up contributing to Jevons Paradox, as they unlock new uses for energy or make previously expensive activities more accessible, leading to higher overall consumption.
Over the past century, oil has been the foundation of modern economic growth, but as the most easily accessible oil reserves are depleted, extracting new supplies is becoming more energy-intensive and costly. The energy return on investment (EROI) for oil is declining, meaning that we are using more energy to extract and process oil than ever before. This is indicative of a broader pattern of diminishing returns on fossil fuels, where the easy gains have already been made, and future extraction will require exponentially more resources for less energy yield.
Compounding these issues is the nature of financial interest, which necessitates continuous economic growth. The financial system is built on the expectation of returns, which means that investments must generate more output in the future than what was initially put in. This pressure for growth drives increased energy consumption because growth is inseparable from energy use. As long as financial systems are designed to require expansion, energy demand will continue to rise, further complicating efforts to transition away from fossil fuels or reduce overall consumption.
A fundamental understanding of potential vs. kinetic energy is crucial in these discussions. Potential energy refers to energy that is stored and can be released to perform work, such as fossil fuels before they are burned or water in a reservoir before it flows through a dam. Kinetic energy, on the other hand, is the energy in motion, such as wind turning a turbine or water flowing through a hydroelectric plant. Fossil fuels are a highly concentrated form of potential energy, and when converted to kinetic energy, they have powered industrial civilization for over a century. However, the shift to renewable energy sources requires a deeper understanding of these energy forms and their limitations.
Renewable energy sources like solar and wind are often better described as "rebuildables" rather than renewables. This is because while the energy itself—sunlight and wind—is renewable, the infrastructure to capture and convert that energy (solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, etc.) wears out over time and must be rebuilt or replaced. The materials and energy required to maintain these systems complicate the idea that they are endlessly sustainable. As a result, the challenge lies not only in building renewable energy capacity but in maintaining it over the long term while ensuring that it remains environmentally and economically viable.
The scale of global energy demand highlights the inadequacy of current efforts to transition to renewables. In 2019, global electricity demand grew by more than the entire solar photovoltaic capacity ever built. This striking fact underscores how quickly energy demand is outpacing the deployment of renewable infrastructure. While the growth of solar and wind energy is impressive, it remains insufficient to keep up with the rising demand for electricity, driven by population growth, economic development, and increased technological dependence.
Furthermore, despite the focus on modern energy sources, humans are using more wood today than they were 100 years ago. Wood remains a significant source of energy, particularly in developing countries where biomass is still a primary fuel for cooking and heating. This fact reveals that while industrialized nations may be shifting toward fossil fuels and renewables, biomass continues to play a crucial role in global energy use, especially in regions where access to electricity and other modern energy sources is limited.
One important distinction in energy systems is that only 20% of global energy use is electricity, meaning that the vast majority of energy consumption is still derived from fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. While electricity is critical for powering homes, industries, and infrastructure, many processes and industries—such as aviation, shipping, heavy manufacturing, and chemical production—are not easily replaceable by electricity. This limitation poses significant challenges for the transition to renewable energy, as it’s not simply a matter of generating more electricity; we also need solutions for sectors that rely on the dense, transportable energy of fossil fuels.
Over the past two centuries, human society has undergone a profound transformation, trading human labor for mechanical labor powered by fossil fuels. This shift began with the Industrial Revolution, when machines began to replace the physical effort of humans and animals in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation. By harnessing the concentrated energy of coal, oil, and gas, we were able to exponentially grow our economic systems, enabling unprecedented levels of productivity, urbanization, and technological advancement. However, this exchange came with a hidden cost: we underpaid for the core economic input—energy—and neglected to account for the negative externalities associated with this massive energy consumption, such as environmental degradation and climate change.
The most striking example of this imbalance is that while we have reaped the benefits of mechanical labor, we continue to tax human labor far more heavily. In fact, 95% of taxes are levied on human labor, through income taxes, payroll taxes, and social security contributions. Meanwhile, the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels—the foundation of modern economic growth—are often subsidized or under-taxed. This creates a distortion in the economy, where the true costs of energy consumption, including its environmental impact, are not reflected in the price of goods and services. We have thus built a system that incentivizes energy-intensive production while externalizing the social and ecological consequences.
The relationship between GDP and material consumption has remained remarkably constant over the last 50 years, with a 1:1 correlation. For every percentage increase in GDP, there has been a corresponding rise in material consumption. This relationship underscores the fact that economic growth remains tightly coupled with the use of physical resources. On average, every dollar of GDP requires two pounds of non-renewable materials, such as minerals, metals, and fossil fuels. This includes everything from the raw materials used in construction and manufacturing to the energy needed to power the global economy.
The material footprint of modern life is enormous. An American baby born today will use approximately 3.1 million pounds of non-renewable materials over the course of their lifetime. This staggering figure includes metals, minerals, fossil fuels, and other resources that are consumed in the production of goods, energy, infrastructure, and technology. The vast scale of this consumption reflects the profound dependence of modern society on non-renewable resources to sustain growth, comfort, and technological advancement.
Even technologies that are often considered part of the green energy transition—such as electric cars—are made of oil. From the plastics in the vehicle’s interior to the energy-intensive processes used to mine and refine the metals for batteries, oil and other fossil fuels are integral to the production process. The same is true for computers, smartphones, and other devices central to modern life. These technologies rely on energy-intensive mining, refining, and manufacturing processes that produce massive amounts of waste. For example, the mining of lithium, cobalt, and other rare earth minerals needed for batteries and electronics generates large volumes of waste and pollution, further compounding the environmental cost of technological advancement.
Furthermore, we often overlook the vast amount of waste generated from mining operations that supply the raw materials for modern infrastructure and consumer goods. For every ton of material extracted, several tons of waste rock and tailings are produced, which contribute to environmental degradation and pose long-term risks such as water contamination. The hidden environmental costs of our material-intensive society are thus vast, from the extraction of resources to the disposal of waste products.
So, while trading human labor for mechanical labor powered by fossil fuels has allowed for exponential economic growth, we have fundamentally underpaid for the energy that fuels our modern world. We continue to ignore the environmental and social costs, externalizing them in the form of pollution, climate change, and resource depletion. The 1:1 relationship between GDP growth and material consumption illustrates the ongoing dependence of our economy on non-renewable resources, and the massive material footprint of modern life is embodied in every product, from electric cars to computers. To create a truly sustainable future, we must not only transition to renewable energy but also rethink the way we use and value materials, recognizing that everything in the modern world is tied to the extraction and consumption of finite resources.
Humans function as a superorganism, where individuals are interconnected and rely on complex systems for survival, much like cells in a body. Modern societies depend on vast networks for energy, communication, and resources, driving collective growth and technological advancement. However, this superorganism is depleting energy at unsustainable rates, especially through reliance on finite fossil fuels. The energy-intensive systems that support global economies, transportation, and agriculture are straining the planet’s resources, leading to environmental degradation and resource depletion, threatening the long-term viability of this interconnected human system.
