---
slug: oip-node-c19-thermoeconomics-exergy
title: Node C19: Thermoeconomics / Exergy
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-node-c19-thermoeconomics-exergy
---

# Node C19: Thermoeconomics / Exergy

C19 — Thermoeconomics / Exergy
{
  "id": "C19",
  "claim": "Economic systems are fundamentally energy-processing systems; economic value tracks available energy (exergy) throughput, and economic growth correlates with energy transformation capacity.",
  "domain": ["economics", "ecology", "systems ecology", "industrial ecology"],
  "pattern": ["exergy", "energy_economics", "thermoeconomics", "maximum_power", "throughput"],
  "mechanism": "Exergy: the maximum useful work obtainable as a system comes to equilibrium with its environment. Georgescu-Roegen: economic processes are entropic — they degrade energy quality. Odum's emergy: embodied energy as a measure of value. Lotka's maximum power principle: systems that maximize energy throughput persist. Ayres: exergy as the physical basis of production functions.",
  "scale": "organism → civilization",
  "claim_tier": "T2",
  "sources": [
    "Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1971). The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Harvard.",
    "Odum, H.T. (1971). Environment, Power, and Society. Wiley.",
    "Lotka, A.J. (1922). 'Contribution to the Energetics of Evolution.' Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 8(6), 147-151.",
    "Ayres, R.U. (1998). 'Eco-thermodynamics: Economics and the Second Law.' Ecol. Econ., 26, 189-209."
  ],
  "dual": "None — the dual would be economic value decoupled from all energy throughput (pure information economy with zero exergy cost).",
  "falsifier": "Durable wealth creation with zero exergy throughput — a sustained economic process producing value while consuming no available energy and producing no entropy.",
  "rival_frame": "Economic value is socially constructed, not energetically determined. Thermoeconomics commits the naturalistic fallacy — it confuses physical necessity with economic worth. Information and services can grow without proportional energy growth (dematerialization). The correlation between energy and GDP is historical contingency, not physical law.",
  "independence_check": "HIGH. Georgescu-Roegen (economics, Vanderbilt, 1971) came from neoclassical economics and discovered the entropy connection. Odum (ecology, Florida, 1971) came from ecosystem energetics. Lotka (biology, Johns Hopkins, 1922) came from population dynamics. Ayres (industrial ecology, INSEAD, 1998) came from engineering and economics. Four fields, four continents, seven decades, same conclusion: economics is thermodynamics applied to human organization.",
  "pattern_type": "energetic",
  "maps_to_axiom": ["A2", "A4"]
}

---

## Corpus map
- Same node, other planes: [Encyclopedia C19](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c19) · [Inventory invariant](/a/oip-invariant-18-318-thermoeconomics-exergy-maximum-power)
- Edges touching C19: [convergence edge 1](/a/oip-convergence-edge-1)
- Catalogue hub: [Public Article](/a/oip-convergence-public-article) · [Schema](/a/oip-convergence-schema)
