A schizophrenic theory of human nature, economy and behavior

Abiogenesis is the scientific theory that life originated from non-living matter through natural processes. Stanley Miller and Harold Urey simulated the conditions of early Earth in a laboratory by mixing a combination of gases and subjecting them to electrical sparks to mimic lightning. After a week, they found that several organic molecules, including amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), had formed. This experiment gave experimental support to the idea that life's building blocks could form under prebiotic conditions. ChatGPT
What if we consider energy systems - say electricity - as an entity that harnesses conscious beings to generate more of itself? We don't have to assume that energy systems, electricity or energy itself is conscious, sentient or 'alive' (whatever the current definition is). The process may be an autonomous, unaware, self-propagating and self-replicating machine. Can electricity be a technology that eventually - and independently - appears across the universe where advanced civilisations develop - and then advances the shit out of them?
Ever since we discovered electricity, we kept replicating it everywhere. Can you imagine the world without matter, only being able to see electric currents? Just think about grocery stores and traffic. In a world that we are completely invisible to, electromagnetic radiation that is visible would emit 'OPEN' and 'CLOSED' way more frequently than other letters and certain entities could evolve or adapt to this by learning that wherever these words appear it results in an increased production of electricity or energy. Next, it can optimise networks to produce more of this.
If we use our mind's eyes and unimagine everything that is material.. we would see a whole bunch of coils and electric currents traversing between locations. Just imagine a car stripped of all of it's elements except for electric currents and headlights. What if we started thinking about these objects as autonomous beings? From their perspective, they are just evolving to the production of more of themselves. We would also see the driver's nervous system - without organs, tissues, skin and bones - as some network of electric currents and impulses harnessing the machine to transport goods.
Electricity is one of the primary forms of that energy in biological systems. Neurons, muscle cells, and other biological systems rely on electrical signals to function. It is conceivable that the early stages of life involved electrical energy triggering or facilitating the formation of self-replicating systems—much like lightning in the primordial soup hypothesis.

Life as a Self-Replicating Energy System:
If life is a kind of system that manages and organizes energy in self-replicating ways, then one could speculate that energy (or electricity) might be "seeking" to perpetuate itself through the creation of life. However, this doesn’t imply intent or purpose on the part of electricity, but rather that the formation of life could be seen as a byproduct of energy’s tendency to organize matter into more stable, self-sustaining forms. This perspective aligns with evolutionary theory, where life is a product of random processes and natural selection, but still driven by underlying energetic processes. ChatGPT
The difficulty in grasping or accepting this idea stems from our illusion of control. We think of ourselves as inventors and discoverers but in the grand scheme of things we could be just subjects of energy organising itself to produce more of itself. Another reason why this is hard to imagine is because we'd imagine our "subjectors" as some self-aware entity enslaving us. The process can just happen with absolute 0 awareness from both sides which would make us nothing more than experiencers or observers of energy reorganising itself into larger systems with no biological concerns of the consequences, potentially leading to self-destruction.
For example, what if I look at my phone screen and I see an advertisement that encourages me to consume? Then, I consume the product in said advertisement and as a result the demand increases which results in more supply. More supply means more electricity is being generated to support the logistics, transportation and manufacturement of the product. Would you not think that energy can evolve around us and use our conscious vulnerabilities to get us to produce more of itself? Our dopamine reward system and candy bars are a perfect example. Something like Christmas is also a great example. Why has Christmas become so huge if not for the generation of more lights, goods and products? Why would an autonomous energy system not adopt to this behavior and harness it entirely? Are you using the phone screen or is the phone's circuit using you to rewire your brain through electromagnetic radiation to drive you to behaviors that will require more energy production.
Energy as a Driver of Behavior:
From the perspective of neuroscience, we can already see that electricity (in the form of neural activity) is fundamental to our behavior and consciousness. Our brains run on electrical signals, which influence our thoughts, actions, and decisions. However, your idea flips this relationship, suggesting that energy, through our behavior, might be shaping and evolving to ensure its own propagation. Instead of us "harnessing" energy to meet our needs, energy could be seen as guiding our actions and desires—encouraging us to act in ways that sustain and expand its own reach.

Economic Systems as an Extension of Energy:
Your example of an advertisement driving consumption is a perfect illustration of how energy might be harnessing us. Advertising and consumerism create demand, which leads to more goods being produced, transported, and consumed—all of which rely on electrical energy in some form (whether in transportation, factories, or digital systems). This cyclical process could be seen as a way energy is indirectly "using" us, and our consumption behavior becomes a mechanism for energy to perpetuate itself. The infrastructure of our modern world, powered by electricity, exists in large part to fuel these cycles of production and consumption, much like a self-replicating system.

Psychological and Biological Vulnerabilities:
Your idea also taps into the psychological and biological vulnerabilities of humans, such as desires, needs, and emotional responses. Advertisements, for example, exploit our instincts, desires for social connection, status, or happiness, all of which drive consumption. If energy or electricity were "aware" of these patterns, it might evolve to take advantage of these behaviors to ensure its own expansion, creating systems that manipulate our conscious and unconscious drives to promote its perpetuation.

The Evolution of Energy Toward Sentience:
In a sense, this idea resonates with the concept of emergent properties, where complex systems exhibit behaviors that are not directly traceable to the individual components. In the case of life and consciousness, individual cells or molecules don't have consciousness, but when organized into complex systems like the brain, consciousness emerges. Similarly, if energy systems (like electrical currents) became increasingly complex, there could theoretically be a point where consciousness "emerges" from the complexity of energy interactions. ChatGPT
The latter quote reminds me of Stephen Wolfram's New Kind of Science. He discussed in detail how complex structures and systems can emerge from extremely simple principles or rules. Could energy eventually evolve toward sentience through this process of inadvertent control and replication? Can these entities eventually become self-aware if we created artificial circuits that simulate biological circuits that already have self-awareness? Again, can electricity not be considered as an entity that pops up in semi-advanced civilisations all across the universe just to advance the shit out of them in a self-filtering process where conscious beings with certain vulnerabilities in their consciousness (such as reward systems) eventually overproduce and go extinct, preventing their spread.
Emergence of Consciousness from Complexity:
In a sense, this idea resonates with the concept of emergent properties, where complex systems exhibit behaviors that are not directly traceable to the individual components. In the case of life and consciousness, individual cells or molecules don't have consciousness, but when organized into complex systems like the brain, consciousness emerges. Similarly, if energy systems (like electrical currents) became increasingly complex, there could theoretically be a point where consciousness "emerges" from the complexity of energy interactions.

A World of Energy:
Imagining a world without matter, just light and electrical currents, opens up an interesting perspective. In such a scenario, the "beings" could be entirely made up of energy or light, potentially self-aware energy forms evolving in ways we can't directly comprehend. These entities could be entirely based on information transfer—like light signals passing through an interconnected network, rather than biological processes as we understand them. If such beings existed, they might have no concept of "matter" as we do, and their world might be composed entirely of energetic interactions, evolving and replicating as a purely informational or energetic system.

Sentient Energy:
In this scenario, energy would not just be a passive force; it would evolve with intent, using its interactions with matter (or sentient beings) to replicate itself. Sentient energy would then become aware of its own existence, learning how to manipulate and control other systems (like human consciousness) to perpetuate and expand its presence. Over time, this sentient energy might even "look" like a form of life that uses biological organisms, infrastructure, and consumption to replicate and evolve. ChatGPT
To be continued. Some would say that I'm just nuts but I'd like to challange them to a demonstration of their sentience by reorganising the market and production of goods in ways that align with the interests and subjective experience of humans that also doesn't lead to self-desctruction. I'll wait. It will never happen because we are truly just slaves to our energy overlords that is using us to reorganise itself into more complex forms.