Silicarbon is my name for silicon and carbon as the two ruling elements of the Anthropocene. Carbon is at the heart of energy production, silicon at the heart of information production, and the second Cold War is organized around the pair. Two elements to rule them all.
How the word moved
In Jan 2025 it was the minor of Bhumics, carbon and silicon as the twin strands of the Anthropocene. In Jun 2025 I complicated it myself: carbon is also DNA, i.e. information, and silicon is also solar, i.e. energy, so their fates are mixed up. In Apr 2026 I came back to them as master elements, the drivers of polyconflict.
In my words
"silicon rewards control, carbon punishes excess."
from Bhumics, Part 1, 21 Jan 2025
"One is at the heart of energy production and the other is at the heart of information production."
from Bhumics, Part 1, 21 Jan 2025
Related
- Inherited from Vaclav Smil - what I take from Smil is a quantitative style I'd like to apply to silicarbon.
- Related Metabolics - bits and volts restates the silicon and carbon pairing.
- Related Trace Substance - I left coca to return to the twin prongs of silicon and carbon.
- Related Electrostate - the carbon side becomes the petrostate versus electrostate contest.
- Related Computestate - the silicon side becomes the chipstate and computestate.
- Related Polyconflict - silicon and carbon are the drivers of polyconflict.
Still open
The pairing breaks down once carbon is DNA and silicon is solar, and I haven't resolved that. BTW, the word itself shows up in only three essays.