Every technology uses physical resources. Every industrial wave did that. What feels different now is that AI creates a new layer of demand on resources that are already politically, environmentally, and socially stressed: power, water, minerals, land, grid capacity, cooling, and local permission.
The value may accrue to hyperscalers, investors, enterprises, and AI users, while the burden may fall on local communities, energy systems, public infrastructure, water systems, or future generations.
That is why entropy tax thinking matters. If something is scarce, irreversible, or socially costly, pricing it properly can force better questions.
Should the community hosting the burden receive direct benefit?
Should there be limits, conditions, or compensating investment?
Should the full cost be visible before deployment decisions are made?
For me, entropy tax is a visibility mechanism. But visibility alone is not enough. Governance decides what is acceptable, and under which conditions. Social permission ensures the people carrying the burden are not treated as invisible.
That is where the idea becomes more interesting to me: moving from entropy tax as economics to entropy governance as the missing safety layer between economic value creation and social welfare.
The woman "sending eight percent of her paycheck home on a corridor that Wise doesn't serve yet" stayed with me. What this quietly reveals is that the entropy tax isn't only financial. It's cognitive, and the people fighting "authentication walls" all day are spending the exact attention they'd need to escape.
Thank you!! Super helpful framing does the work of both a microscope and a telescope to pull into view the breadcrumbs, silhouette and "outputs" of a hyperobject. While reading, I couldn't help but hear Genki Sudo, "Machine Civilization" as background music
The reasoning debt concept that I've used is an entropy tax on software systems. You seem to be considering something structurally similar but from a different angle. Invisible mechanisms that produce visible consequences nobody is naming correctly. Happy to have found you!
Really appreciated the depth of your writing Quy. Broad, encompassing heuristic model using the cool metaphor of the global market river and its fluid toll booths. I've been around since before the Internet, and I can remember a blank Google search page! One of the most popular motifs of the time was "you can only be you after you login".
Fascinating insights creatively written. It would be interesting to see a book of maps with these examples of winding waterways in recent history. Your analogy that so much is taking a “toll” on the human in the loop is appropriate.
This is a very useful frame.
Every technology uses physical resources. Every industrial wave did that. What feels different now is that AI creates a new layer of demand on resources that are already politically, environmentally, and socially stressed: power, water, minerals, land, grid capacity, cooling, and local permission.
The value may accrue to hyperscalers, investors, enterprises, and AI users, while the burden may fall on local communities, energy systems, public infrastructure, water systems, or future generations.
That is why entropy tax thinking matters. If something is scarce, irreversible, or socially costly, pricing it properly can force better questions.
Should the community hosting the burden receive direct benefit?
Should there be limits, conditions, or compensating investment?
Should the full cost be visible before deployment decisions are made?
For me, entropy tax is a visibility mechanism. But visibility alone is not enough. Governance decides what is acceptable, and under which conditions. Social permission ensures the people carrying the burden are not treated as invisible.
That is where the idea becomes more interesting to me: moving from entropy tax as economics to entropy governance as the missing safety layer between economic value creation and social welfare.
The woman "sending eight percent of her paycheck home on a corridor that Wise doesn't serve yet" stayed with me. What this quietly reveals is that the entropy tax isn't only financial. It's cognitive, and the people fighting "authentication walls" all day are spending the exact attention they'd need to escape.
Thank you!! Super helpful framing does the work of both a microscope and a telescope to pull into view the breadcrumbs, silhouette and "outputs" of a hyperobject. While reading, I couldn't help but hear Genki Sudo, "Machine Civilization" as background music
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-qhj3sJ5qs)
The reasoning debt concept that I've used is an entropy tax on software systems. You seem to be considering something structurally similar but from a different angle. Invisible mechanisms that produce visible consequences nobody is naming correctly. Happy to have found you!
Really appreciated the depth of your writing Quy. Broad, encompassing heuristic model using the cool metaphor of the global market river and its fluid toll booths. I've been around since before the Internet, and I can remember a blank Google search page! One of the most popular motifs of the time was "you can only be you after you login".
"you can only be you after you login" - great quote!
Fascinating insights creatively written. It would be interesting to see a book of maps with these examples of winding waterways in recent history. Your analogy that so much is taking a “toll” on the human in the loop is appropriate.
What a great idea. I'll have to think about it.
Great article.