Why no one can win a war through violence alone: thermodynamics, complexity and the limits of power
No one will ever achieve a lasting victory through violence alone, because violence itself is subject to the same laws of nature as any other process. War is not a machine that you can make run faster by applying more force; it is a dynamic system with its own internal logic. It reacts, adapts and develops new forms of resistance. Just like a hurricane, you can influence it, but not control it through brute force. The reason for this lies deeply rooted in the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first law: energy cannot be created from nothing The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. In war, this means that every action — military, economic, psychological or informational — costs energy. Soldiers, fuel, logistics, political legitimacy, morale, trust: these are all forms of available energy within a system. When violence is deployed, this energy is immediately converted into other forms: damage, resistance, chaos, fear,...