"Measure civilizational progress by energy capture not GDP Gil Hurwitz argued from thermodynamic first principles that happiness and GDP are poor proxies for genuine progress because they are subjective estimators, whereas the Kardashev scale — measuring how much free energy a civilization can capture and use — is an objective benchmark derived from physics. He described life itself as "an energy-seeking fire" that "just gets smarter and smarter at finding pockets of energy," and argued that any policy, technology, or personal habit that accelerates movement up the Kardashev gradient has objectively positive fitness value. This gives individuals and policymakers a non-arbitrary way to evaluate trade-offs: does this choice increase or decrease the productive, predictive capacity of the system it belongs to? Source: Gil Hurwitz, Tech Panel Discussion, EAC vs DACK"