Not Quite a Theory of Everyone

Life relies on energy.Different forms of life specialize in exploiting different energy resources, and there is a long evolutionary story to tell about innovations in energy exploitation and competition over resources.The history of human economic innovation is also one of energy use and exploitation.The industrialization of our species required new sources of energy, which we discovered, extracted, and used without much care for future costs.Those costs are now arrived in the form of climate change and the running down of the energy assets we have designed our lives around.We are in crisis.These observations lead Muthukrishna to make the following claim:By understanding the constraints imposed by energy, we will transform the way we think about economics, politics, and conservation.But by deepening our understanding of human behaviour, we will develop original insights about how to more effectively exploit energy in ways that help increase our prosperity and reduce the risks of conflict, both within and between societies.By the end we will have a theory that encompasses both; a unified theory of human affairs.A theory of everyone.(2023: 3) In this way the stage is set for a big theory book.Part I is addressed to Who We Are and How We Got Here, whilst Part II discusses Where We're Going.Muthukrishna is careful to note that his approach is not to provide an account of the "one thing that explains everything" (pp.21-22).