Energy

Met Prof. Charles Hall last week, which was fun.  He is all about EROI (Energy Return on Investment) and about getting the social science of economics to recognize the existence of the "biophysical" realm of stuff, which is to say embodied energy.
He mentioned that he had received his training from one Howard Odum , and lo and behold, here's a very lovely scientist-guy who saw the world exactly as the transformation of energy.  And you know he looks a bit like the wise old farmer in "Babe."

You might say, well of course economics is about stuff, but they, the Economists, don't talk about stuff, they talk about money - about interest rates and commodity prices and consumer confidence.  And you might say, well of course the world is composed of the transformation of energy, but you would be surprised how fixated we are by the thought that, no, energy is something you put in a gas tank or that runs in wires. 
That's how deranged we are by our own concepts.