Distributive Numeracy

About

Open source ecology's core work revolves around the distribution of power - as in productive power and economic power. The core question for us is - in the age of AI and automation - who ends up owning the tools of production. If the answer to this question is sound then we can have a Democratic society without existential risk. The trend today is not good, with ultimate Power Concentration at the Trillion Dollar Scale.

Quantities to Understand - Earth Scale

• From the Dyson Sphere, the solar constant of 1360 W/m2 emerges. Dyson Swarms are potentially viable, but as of 2026, placing solar energy on the Earth makes most sense. There are companies working on putting datacenters in space [1], such as SpaceX and Google, with Nvidia redesigning for radiative cooling in space. Point: radiation takes only a fraction of a PV panel area, so it is in principle not hard.
• If we use all of the current 20TW combined energy use of humanity - instead to send shit to a stable Lagrange Point such as L4 or L5 - we could send 3000 kg per second. [2]
• We would need 100-200kg of fuel per kg to go to L4 [3]
• At village scale, we would launch 35 tons per year (from 2 acres of PV + 400kW wind turbine) to LEO, or about 1.5 tons to L4. Bottom line: even a village in a collaborative economy could engage in space travel based on energy considerations. See Space_Travel#Village_Space_Travel.
• 1 of 28 Merlin engines for Falcon Heavy are $1M a pop. That is the biggest cost of a rocket. [4], at $100M a shot for Falcon Heavy (3 Falcon 9s).