The following are prompts I've used against the Perplexity LLM. Feel free to try them yourself.
- How do Dorion Sagan, author of Into the Cool, and economist Steve Keen overlap, in terms of emphasizing thermodynamics, with Earth as a sun-powered open system? How do Kenneth Boulding and Buckminster Fuller echo this same theme? What other economists pay attention to the "cosmic context" meaning the facts about energy starting from first principles?
- Follow-up: How might we integrate the thinking of economist Paul Romer into that of the aforementioned thermodynamically-aware systems thinkers: Buckminster Fuller, Steve Keen, Kenneth Boulding and Herman Daly? [Exhibit 1]
- Explain Steve Keen's critique of the labor theory of value in economics. How might his views be linked to the bigger thermodynamic picture in which Planet Earth is the recipient of steady grant income (not a loan) in the form of terawatts of solar energy, creating the Markov chain reactions describing the daily energy budget? [Exhibit 2]
- Buckminster Fuller wrote about "the industry industry missed" meaning the coupling of aerospace level know-how to the problem of how to mass produce dwellings. In the US, the mobile home industry has provided shelters for vast numbers of fixed income retirees. China seems to be doing something closer to Fuller's vision, by rolling out dwelling unit options that incorporate better weather proofing and a higher tech image. Do we expect Americans to eventually catch up with something more appealing than "tiny homes", "mobile homes" and "destination trailers"? [Exhibit 3]
Related reading:
Post to Wanderers Group (July 1, 2025)
