In the email, Robin mentioned energy being arbitrarily cheaper in an alternate universe due to universal constants. This resonates with me because so much science fiction of the mid-20th century was inspired by the belief that nuclear energy was the way of the future, that we would have an Energy Revolution. This given future was everywhere, from Asimov to the Jetsons. Of course, what actually happened is that there has been no Revolution of Energy, but a Revolution of Information.

But what all of that old sci-fi had in mind was a sudden increase in available energy. But what I like about what Robin said was that it implied that boundless energy was available to us from the start. Would we have gone to the moon during the Renaissance?

I think that type of power would have first been used to conquer the known (and potentially the New) world.

If energy were much more freely available, non-expert manual labour would be near worthless, and it wouldn't be worth the hassle to keep serfs. I think it would have led to a completely different social order.

looking back to pynchon, i think theres plenty exploration to do with the parralels between information and energy. the information age has lowered the cost of information; however, entropy reigns inthe celestial city. or so they say.