postsEnergy vs. IntelligenceDavid Watson · Sep 2, 2026Energy abundance against intelligence abundance for twenty-six fictional universesA scatterplot. Each axis runs 1 to 10 with a divider at 4.5. Present-day Earth is marked at 3, 3. Universes that change over their series are drawn as arrows from their first work to their last; hovering or focusing one reveals the intermediate works.1122334455667788991010ENERGY RICHINTELLIGENCE POORENERGY RICHINTELLIGENCE RICHENERGY POORINTELLIGENCE POORENERGY POORINTELLIGENCE RICHINTELLIGENCE ABUNDANCEdeployable cognitive work per capitaENERGY ABUNDANCEusable energy per capitaReal history: 1969 → 2017 → 20261969 · intelligence 1.9, energy 2.7. Apollo year. Developed-world grid and cars, per-capita energy not far off today's but dirtier and dearer: 2.6. Computers calculate, people think: 2.0.19692017 · intelligence 2.6, energy 3. The year of Attention Is All You Need. Search and smartphones for everyone, Siri and Alexa that mostly set timers; nothing does the work for you: 2.6.20172026, now · intelligence 3.8, energy 3. Cheap-enough energy; agents that do real professional work for anyone with a subscription: 3.8, most of the way to level 4.2026, nowMad Max: Mad Max (1979) → Fury Road (2015)Mad Max (1979) · intelligence 1.9, energy 2.2. A late-1970s Australia coming apart: cops, hospitals and V8s, but petrol is already running short and not a computer in sight. A 1969-grade society in decline: 1.9 and 2.2.Mad Max (1979)Fury Road (2015) · intelligence 1.2, energy 1.1. Guzzoline is currency and they do have engines, so 1.1 not 1.0. Knowledge is whatever the War Boys were told, plus a little mechanics' craft.Fury Road (2015)Mad Max2001: 2001 (1968) → 3001: The Final Odyssey2001 (1968) · intelligence 3.2, energy 5.1. Pan Am to orbit, a Hilton in orbit, a Moon base, a crewed Jupiter mission: 5.1. HAL is level-6 cognition, but a handful exist and the one we meet kills the crew; Earth is 1968 with videophones.2001 (1968)3001: The Final Odyssey · intelligence 6.3, energy 7.2. Space towers to orbit, inertia drives, a settled solar system with a second sun: 7.2. Everyone wears a Braincap and downloads skills straight in, but there is no superhuman mind about: 6.3.3001: The Final Odyssey2001Dune: Dune (1965) → God Emperor of Dune → Chapterhouse: DuneDune (1965) · intelligence 2.1, energy 6. Heighliners, shields and suspensors, held by a feudal handful. Thinking machines banned; Mentats and Navigators are a rare elite: 2.1.Dune (1965)God Emperor of Dune · intelligence 2, energy 3.9. Leto II's 3,500-year peace: travel forbidden, tech frozen, a green Arrakis of villagers under the Fish Speakers. Slightly more literate than Dune's serfs, far less energy.God Emperor of DuneChapterhouse: Dune · intelligence 3, energy 7.6. After the Scattering: no-ships everywhere, Ixian machines, axlotl tanks. Still no thinking machines, but the Ixians are edging up to the line: 3.0.Chapterhouse: DuneDuneFoundation: Foundation (the Empire) → Foundation and Empire → Foundation and EarthFoundation (the Empire) · intelligence 2, energy 7.2. Trantor at the start of the decline. Hyperships and atomic power routine, minus a bit for the rot already visible. No AI anywhere; science is an encyclopedia project.Foundation (the Empire)Foundation and Empire · intelligence 1.7, energy 5.8. The interregnum. The periphery has lost atomic power and slid into barbarism; the Foundation trades nuclear gadgets like magic and the Empire is a rump. Median galaxy: 1.7 and 5.8.Foundation and EmpireFoundation and Earth · intelligence 2.7, energy 7.8. The Foundation's federation has restored the trade lanes; Trevize flies a gravitic ship steered by thought. Gaia is one world, not the median: 2.7.Foundation and EarthFoundationThe Expanse: Leviathan Wakes → Babylon's Ashes → Leviathan FallsLeviathan Wakes · intelligence 3.7, energy 6.1. The Epstein drive makes the system a neighbourhood even for broke Belters. Hand terminals and ship expert systems, a hair past 2026: 3.6.Leviathan WakesBabylon's Ashes · intelligence 3.7, energy 7.1. The ring gates are open: 1,300 systems to settle, and a war over who controls the door.Babylon's AshesLeviathan Falls · intelligence 3.8, energy 8. Thirty years on: the gate network is infrastructure, Laconia has protomolecule-derived tech, and people still do the thinking.Leviathan FallsThe ExpanseStar Trek: The Original Series → TNG / DS9 → Discovery (32nd c.)The Original Series · intelligence 4.2, energy 8.4. Warp is routine, transporters too, but food synthesisers rather than replicators: 8.4. The ship's computer talks and analyses; the crew thinks: 4.2.The Original SeriesTNG / DS9 · intelligence 6.4, energy 9. Replicators are matter at will: 9.0. Data, the holodeck and the EMH are crew, not wonders: 6.4.TNG / DS9Discovery (32nd c.) · intelligence 7, energy 7.2. After the Burn: dilithium is scarce and warp travel precious, so a jump between stars is the plot again. Zora and programmable matter make cognition cheap: 7.0.Discovery (32nd c.)Star TrekAccelerando: Part 1: Manfred → Part 2: Amber → Part 3: SirhanPart 1: Manfred · intelligence 4.9, energy 3.4. A 2010s Earth with a swarm of agents doing Manfred's thinking for him. He is exceptional; the median is closer to 2026: 4.9. Energy is ours plus a little.Part 1: ManfredPart 2: Amber · intelligence 7.4, energy 6. The Ring Imperium at Jupiter: uploads, forks, a solar-powered economy of minds. Superhuman cognition for anyone who joins: 7.4.Part 2: AmberPart 3: Sirhan · intelligence 9.2, energy 9.3. The inner system is being turned into computronium during the action: 9.3. The protagonists are the Vile Offspring's refugees, so not quite the corner: 9.2.Part 3: SirhanAccelerandoHyperion: Hyperion (the Hegemony) → The Fall of HyperionHyperion (the Hegemony) · intelligence 7.4, energy 8.4. The WorldWeb: a house with rooms on six planets, farcasters as doors, the datasphere and Core AIs advising everyone. 7.4 and 8.4, and it is all borrowed from the Core.Hyperion (the Hegemony)The Fall of Hyperion · intelligence 3, energy 4.3. The farcasters are destroyed and the Core cut off. Hawking-drive ships still fly but with years of time-debt, and most Web worlds are suddenly alone and some regress to muscle and steam: 4.3. Comlogs without a datasphere: 3.4. Endymion, 274 years on, is much the same under the Pax.The Fall of HyperionHyperionStargate: SG-1, early seasons → Atlantis eraSG-1, early seasons · intelligence 2.4, energy 3.4. The SGC in the early seasons: 1997 Earth plus a gate. Interstellar travel for a dozen people, no ships, no reactors, everything else is the Air Force: 3.4. Late-1990s Earth plus Carter: 2.4.SG-1, early seasonsAtlantis era · intelligence 3.6, energy 8.6. The Tau'ri at their peak, scored the way Star Trek is scored for Starfleet: the Asgard legacy from SG-1's finale, 304s with intergalactic hyperdrives, ZPMs, naquadah reactors that run a city, and Atlantis itself parked off San Francisco. 8.6. The Asgard core holds everything they knew, but humans still do the thinking: 3.6. The program is still classified through Universe.Atlantis eraStargateWarhammer 40k: Dark Age of Technology → Great Crusade (30k) → 41st millenniumDark Age of Technology · intelligence 8.6, energy 9.6. Humanity's forgotten peak: STC fabricators, Men of Iron, a galaxy colonised at leisure. Then the machines rebelled.Dark Age of TechnologyGreat Crusade (30k) · intelligence 3.9, energy 6.5. The Imperium at its height: Mechanicum cogitators, Remembrancers, the Emperor's science. Still a theocracy of the machine, but one that builds: 3.9.Great Crusade (30k)41st millennium · intelligence 1, energy 3.4. Ten thousand years later. Warp travel is a lottery, plasma reactors are relics nobody understands, and the median human is an illiterate hive-worker for whom knowledge is heresy.41st millenniumWarhammer 40kNeuromancer · intelligence 4.2, energy 2.4. Anchor 5 for cyberspace and AIs, minus 0.8: Wintermute is a one-off behind ICE and the cowboys do the thinking. Energy 2 for the metered Sprawl, plus 0.4 for Freeside and the orbital rich.NeuromancerThe Matrix · intelligence 4.6, energy 1.9. Zion: scavenged geothermal, hunted, so 2 minus 0.1. Skill uploads are level-7 cognition for a few hovercraft crews; the median human is a battery in 1999. Blends to 4.6.The MatrixPermutation City · intelligence 4.4, energy 3. Uploads exist (7), but compute is so dear that Copies run at 17x slowdown and only the rich can afford to exist: minus 2 for distribution, minus 1 for scarcity as plot, plus 0.4 for the Autoverse hobbyists. Energy is today's.Permutation CityRainbows End · intelligence 5.2, energy 3.1. Everyone wears, everyone is networked, retirees get retrained into it: a firm 5, plus 0.2 for Rabbit. Energy is 2025 San Diego, a hair above ours.Rainbows EndStar Wars · intelligence 5.6, energy 8.1. Droids do translation, navigation and surgery for everyone (5), and they are ordinary members of society (6), but they are property and nothing advances: 5.6. Hyperdrives are a household item: 8.1.Star WarsDiaspora · intelligence 10, energy 8.4. Polis citizens are software; cognition is the substrate. Energy is beyond concern, and they launch thousand-fold clone fleets and wormhole probes, but the Sun is still in one piece: 8.4.DiasporaThe Culture · intelligence 10, energy 10. The corner exists to hold this.The CultureStarcraft · intelligence 4.4, energy 5.3. Warp-capable battlecruisers and terraformed colonies for the Dominion; the median Terran is a convict or dirt farmer on a fringe world. Adjutants and resocialisation are level-5 cognition, mostly military: 4.4.StarcraftHer · intelligence 7, energy 3.1. Samantha reads a book in a fraction of a second and talks to 8,000 people at once, and anyone with a phone has one: superhuman and broadly accessible, 7. The grid is near-future LA.HerGhost in the Shell · intelligence 7.4, energy 3.4. Cyberbrains for nearly everyone, Tachikomas that think, full-body prosthetics: augmentation broadly accessible, minus a bit because the AIs are leashed. 2030s Japan on energy.Ghost in the ShellLensman · intelligence 2.1, energy 9.6. Inertialess drives that cross galaxies, planets thrown as weapons, suns turned into beams: energy is effectively free at any scale, 9.6. Written in the 1930s, so there is not a computer anywhere; the Lens is telepathy for an elite. 2.1.LensmanRingworld · intelligence 2.9, energy 8.8. Known Space: transfer booths make a planet one city, hyperdrive is routine, the Puppeteers move their whole solar system. 8.8. No AI worth the name; autodocs and autopilots, people think. 2.9.RingworldBlade Runner 2049 · intelligence 5.8, energy 2.2. Replicants and Joi holograms are mass-market level-6 cognition, docked for being property: 5.8. LA is walled against the sea, protein farms feed it, Wallace's solar fields are the exception: 2.2.Blade Runner 2049Cyberpunk 2077 · intelligence 6.8, energy 2.7. Engrams like Silverhand are digitised minds, netrunners and Delamain are everyday, and the blackwall holds back worse: 7 minus 0.2 for who can afford it. Night City's grid is held together with tape: 2.7.Cyberpunk 2077MCU · intelligence 3.5, energy 3.4. Arc reactors, JARVIS, vibranium and Pym particles are held by about a dozen people; the median New Yorker has our grid and our phone. Post-Endgame Earth, with Wakanda open and Stark tech leaking out: 3.5 and 3.4, a hair past 2026.MCUHalo · intelligence 5, energy 7.6. Slipspace is routine for the UNSC and colonies are ordinary, but a jump still takes weeks and costs: 7.6. Smart AIs like Cortana are level-7 minds, but they live seven years and serve the military; civilians get dumb AIs: 7 minus 2 for distribution, 5.0.HaloInspired by this post.