{"id":86713,"date":"2025-10-15T07:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=86713"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:05:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:05:04","slug":"quantum-economics-from-the-perspective-of-quantum-biology-labour-value-and-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/10\/15\/quantum-economics-from-the-perspective-of-quantum-biology-labour-value-and-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum economics from the perspective of quantum biology: Labour, value and reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a new series that will be published daily during the rest of this week.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first quantum economics series and then the resulting quantum essays\u00a0can be found here<\/a>, but from the outset, whilst we knew the original ten-part series that laid the foundation for ideas on this issue was a starting point, there was always going to be a second series of essays, based on concepts in quantum biology, which is how and why Jacqueline, my wife and co-creator of these ideas, had become interested in these issues in the first place.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This post is chapter 1 in that news series, which will, we hope, provide a deeper explanation of our thinking on what we think is a key issue with the potential to deliver a new understanding of the economy.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A list of previous posts in this series is included at the end of this chapter.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Chapter 1 \u2013 Labour, Value and Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1905, Albert Einstein solved a puzzle.\u00a0 Light shining on certain metals sometimes released electrons, creating an electric current, but sometimes did nothing.\u00a0 He showed that light came in indivisible packets \u2014 photons \u2014 and only photons with enough energy, striking a receptive surface, could free electrons and set current flowing.<\/p>\n

It is a beautiful metaphor for the economy.\u00a0 Labour is our photon.\u00a0 Value is the electron it can release.\u00a0 Society is the surface on which that energy is either absorbed or bounces away.<\/p>\n

Labour as the photon<\/strong><\/p>\n

My argument is that every human being carries a quantum of energy: intelligence, skill, and time.\u00a0 In addition, labour is indivisible: each person\u2019s effort is a discrete packet of possibility.\u00a0 But potential is not enough.\u00a0 Labour achieves nothing in isolation.\u00a0 It must meet something capable of absorbing it, whether it be a job, an institution, a community, or a purpose, if that potential is to be released.<\/p>\n

When the economy provides that receptive surface, labour is absorbed, and value is released.\u00a0 When it does not, labour is wasted.\u00a0 Unemployment, underemployment, and exclusion are photons bouncing off an unresponsive surface; that is the equivalent of light without current.<\/p>\n

This means labour is not simply one \u201cfactor of production.\u201d\u00a0 It is the source of all production.\u00a0 Machines, land, and money have no power of their own; they require human energy to be set in motion.\u00a0 Labour is the spark that animates every other resource.<\/p>\n

Value as the electron<\/strong><\/p>\n

In physics, once a photon strikes and frees an electron, that electron can flow through a circuit, generating current.\u00a0 In economics, when labour is absorbed, it releases value, which is then seen in the goods, services, and relationships that sustain life.<\/p>\n

Value is not, in that case, an abstract number on a spreadsheet.\u00a0 It is the food cooked, the child taught, the patient healed, the community cared for, the product made, and the service supplied.\u00a0 However, like electrons, value must move through a circuit, so that it moves from wages to consumption, from the impact of government spending to public services, from investment to future capacity.\u00a0 When that circuit is complete, society flourishes, but when it short-circuits, the energy becomes destructive.<\/p>\n

In that case, the true measure of an economy is not to be found in how brightly its markets shine, but in how well its circuits flow.\u00a0 Money prices tell us nothing if value fails to reach the people who need it.\u00a0 A balanced budget can mask an unbalanced society if labour\u2019s energy has nowhere meaningful to go.<\/p>\n

The social surface<\/strong><\/p>\n

For photons to release electrons, they must hit a receptive surface.\u00a0 Metals differ in how easily they yield.\u00a0 So do societies.\u00a0 A society that welcomes labour through fair wages, decent work, education, and collective provision acts like a good conductor.\u00a0 A society that blocks access through inequality, insecurity, or discrimination acts like an insulator.<\/p>\n

Every strike, redundancy, and unpaid hour is evidence of energy wasted because the surface was unprepared to receive it, leading to increasing disorder.\u00a0 The task of policy, then, is not to make labour cheaper but to make society more receptive: to create institutions that turn human effort into value rather than reflection.<\/p>\n

Smoke and mirrors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not all surfaces absorb electrons in response to photons, though: in physics, light that hits a mirror is reflected.\u00a0 It looks active - brilliant and even dazzling - but releases no electrons.\u00a0 No current flows, which is an understanding core to quantum biology. As a matter of fact, all life is characterised by the passage of photons and electrons through an electromagnetic field.<\/p>\n

Speculation performs the same role as the reflection of electrons in economics.\u00a0 Whole industries shine with apparent vitality, whether they be trading floors, property speculators or crypto markets, but the light they throw is deceptive.\u00a0 Enormous amounts of labour are diverted into reflection, and not into creating value. Like the reflections on the back wall of Plato\u2019s cave, these activities create an illusion of something real, but the substance of what is happening is very different.<\/p>\n

Bright graduates design algorithms for high-frequency trading instead of renewable energy.\u00a0 Accountants and lawyers spend their careers defending tax havens instead of strengthening public services.\u00a0 Bankers invent derivatives whose sole purpose is to profit from volatility.\u00a0 The activity is intense, the surfaces polished, but nothing new is created.<\/p>\n

In these situations, labour\u2019s photons bounce endlessly within the mirrors of finance, dazzling but sterile, and instead of increasing order in the system, they create an illusion of coherence whilst providing none.<\/p>\n

In contrast, a photon absorbed illuminates the system, transferring energy (information) into society and creating value and coherence for all.<\/p>\n

This is the tragedy of misdirected labour: energy is not merely unused but consumed in producing illusion.\u00a0 The harder people work in speculative sectors, the more distorted the economy becomes.\u00a0 We mistake the shimmer of rising asset prices for the glow of genuine value.<\/p>\n

The waste of reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

In physics, photons reflected from a mirror contribute nothing to power.\u00a0 In economics, labour devoted to speculation adds nothing to collective well-being.\u00a0 It creates the appearance of wealth while draining the real sources of it.<\/p>\n

Three kinds of waste follow:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lost opportunity. <\/strong>Work that could heal, educate, or build is redirected into gambling on prices.<\/li>\n
  2. Those nearest the mirrors capture light that should have illuminated the whole room.<\/li>\n
  3. The reflections feed bubbles that burst, destroying jobs and savings across society.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is not neutral redistribution; it is systemic dysfunction.\u00a0 A society that channels its brightest minds into reflection rather than production guarantees its own stagnation.<\/p>\n

    The true measure of absorption<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The economy\u2019s success should therefore be measured not by output alone but by absorption \u2014 the degree to which labour is taken up in activities that release genuine value.<\/p>\n

    An absorbent, vital economy is energised to invest in teaching, care, health, green production, and cultural creation.\u00a0 It pays fairly, protects workers, and values contribution over speculation.\u00a0 It allows photons to strike metal and not mirrors, and as a result, to illuminate reality.<\/p>\n

    A reflective, dying economy is drained of energy and measures itself by GDP and asset prices.\u00a0 It celebrates brightness while its circuits fail.\u00a0 Just as the prisoners staring at the back wall of Plato\u2019s cave mistook shadows for reality, in this economy, churn is mistaken for current, motion for movement, and illusion for achievement.<\/p>\n

    The contrast can be seen in a statement that has been suggested (probably incorrectly) to be attributable to Einstein, which is that \u201cNot everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.\" Whoever said it, the statement highlights that many important aspects of life, including care in all its forms, cannot be easily quantified and so measured, while other things that can be measured, like money and metrics based on it, may not provide an indication of true value. The measure of absorption reinforces the point.<\/p>\n

    The politics of care<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Once we recognise labour as the photon and value as the electron, politics becomes the science of making society receptive.\u00a0 A politics of care would:<\/p>\n