Without time, mass and the three dimensions no energy. Without energy no money.
I will start my article by writing about some equations which you might have come across in school when you studied science or physics. Do not dispair they are not difficult but important for our insight.
First we look at the subject of energy and what insights we can derive from those equations.
The fundamental principle of energy is that energy is a conserved quantity. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can be converted in form but not be created or destroyed.
The International System of Units (SI) has defined the unit of measurement of energy (E) to be joule (J). Where
J = kg m2 s-2
where
kg is kilogram = mass
m is meter = distance
s is seconds = time
From this it is clear that without mass there is no energy. Without space there is no distance and therefore no energy. Furthermore without the dimension of time there is no energy.
Although here energy is inversely proportional to time, there are other forms of describing energy where it is directly proportional to time like for example
J = watt s
in this description watt is the energy rate i.e. energy per unit time being joule per second. So energy is proportional to time.
This might seem confusing to you at first glance, the reason for this is because we introduced watt, and watt is a unit of power which is considered a derived unit.
In the universe of photovoltaics the form of energy of interest is light. This energy is dependent on freqencty as in the Plank-Einstein equation:
E = h f
where h is Plank’s constant and has the units of J Hz-1 and where f is frequency. It can also be stated as J s note that frequency is time dependent.
Also the famous Einsteins equation for a photon of light is
E = m c2
There are more energy equation in physics which describe different energies like thermal energy, magnetic energy …etc. If you want more info go to wikipedia.org and discover knowledge.
Energy is used to transport human beings and goods around the world covering large distances. To heat and cool our homes. However, the more important use of energy today is the storage of money. Money today has different forms of value on of which is digital money.
Without energy more importantly, electric energy money as we know it would disappear.
Therefore, if we want money we need to have electric energy to create money, store money and exchange money.
With the advancement of digital money we find that the money records are stored in databases which are run 24/7 on energy. If there is no energy, then there is no money and wealth will vanish.
The digital economy runs on energy. Since energy is in abundance in the universe , so is digital money in abundance in the universe. This energy just needs to be converted from one form to the electric form and so the means of exchange of value used in the digital economy is partly translated to the physical economy with the exchange of goods.
Up till today, the dominant form of energy in the world economy was based on carbon materials as a source of thermal energy, which was combusted to produce the other forms of energy we rely on. The effect of this being the rise of levels pollution and climate change. These need to be displaced by clean sources of energy like solar, wind and others. The democratisation of electricity production today has the form of photovoltaics.
The cheapest form of energy is the energy transported via light to the planet from the sun. It is converted to electricity with photovoltaic modules and can be harnessed to run the economies of the world. Storage is very important because the sun does not shine the whole day so at night or during cloudy periods we still need to run the economy. The combination of the two is a win win for humanity.
So, if African economies want to develop further, they will have to invest in their production of energy through solar, wind and other sources of clean energy as well as energy storage. They would be able to use digital money, which depends on electric energy, to make their economies prosper as it is a frictionless form of money. They would be able to advance their economic activities through the use of electricity in all sectors. In my opinion the main strategic initiative for African development, contributing and joining the world in economic activity and leading productive and prosperous lives, is to invest in solar energy.
In the past money was finite because it depended on physical value stores of gold, silver and precious metals. These were of value because they were scarce. Todays money is dependent on energy and the abundance of energy means that there is plenty of money.