Heraclitus famously asserted that ἀνάγκη (necessity) is the natural force shaping human life, the world and the kosmos. In contrast, human craft and technique, τέχνη (tekhnē) can only operate and progress within the constraints set by this necessity and the laws of nature. Limited natural resources will inevitably become the ultimate boundary to technological and economic growth. As Heraclitus famously stated, “πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει” (“everything flows, and nothing remains the same”), a profound insight echoed centuries later by fundamental physical principles such as the conservation of energy. Looking ahead, the future of humanity will depend on the primacy of λόγος (logos), the rational, ordering principle for the survival and flourishing of our Human species.

Finite Resources

• Earth has a finite stock of critical materials: copper, lithium, rare earths, phosphorus, helium, etc.
• Many of these cannot be synthetically created or substituted effectively.
• Ore grades are declining, meaning more energy is required to extract the same amount.

Example: Copper ore grades have dropped from ~8% in the 1800s to <0.5% today. This is exponentially increasing the energy cost per gram.

Thermodynamic Costs of Recycling

• While recycling is key to circular economy dreams, it comes with entropy costs.
• According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, perfect recycling is impossible — there are always losses.
• Thus, even a “fully circular economy” still requires new material inputs.

Peak Material Theories

• Similar to Peak Oil, we are approaching peak availability for some strategic elements:
  • Copper (used in every energy system)
  • Phosphorus (non-replaceable in agriculture)
  • Helium (essential for quantum tech & MRI, cannot be synthesised)
• Post-peak scenarios imply plateaus or declines in technological expansion tied to those materials.

FUNCTIONAL MINIATURIZATION LIMITS

Quantum Limits to Computing

• Moore’s Law is dying: below 1.5 nm, quantum tunnelling causes electrons to “leak” through gates.
• You can’t shrink transistors forever — we are hitting atomic and quantum boundaries.

Already, chips below 3 nm (like TSMC’s) are nearing the physical limit of classical electronics.

Heat Dissipation and Scaling Laws

• Smaller = hotter. As devices shrink, surface area drops faster than volume, leading to increased heat density.
• There’s a cooling limit beyond which further miniaturisation causes system failure.

Biological & Cognitive Constraints

• Human interaction with machines is constrained by sensorial, perceptual, and cognitive bandwidth.
• Making tech smaller or faster doesn’t guarantee functional improvement, because we’re the bottleneck in many use cases.

Complexity Barrier

• Systems become exponentially more complex as they scale or interconnect.
• This leads to diminishing returns and eventually fragility (e.g., software bloat, electrical grid overloads, AI alignment issues).

Infinite growth in function leads to unmanageable complexity, not efficiency.

CONCLUSION: THE “FINITE TECHNOCENE”

Technological growth is subject to hard physical, chemical, quantum, thermodynamic, and human limits.

The idea of infinite technological progress:

• It is a myth rooted in the Enlightenment and industrial ideology
• Ignores physical reality, particularly entropy, material scarcity, and natural law
• Becomes self-defeating as complexity and scale create instabilities and social disintegration