---
title: 'The Inverted Mountain: Why Every Step Toward Environmental Superintelligence Is Cheaper Than the Last'
slug: 'inverted-mountain'
date: 2026-05-13
type: 'essay'
status: 'published'
tags: ['enviroai', 'thermodynamics', 'information-theory', 'paper']
abstract: 'First-principles synthesis of the physics, economics, and policy implications of information-substituted environmental stewardship. The trajectory has the unusual property that each step toward the summit costs less than the last.'
license: 'CC-BY-4.0'
author: 'Jed Anderson'
co_authors: []
canonical_url: 'https://jedanderson.org/essays/inverted-mountain'
original_date: 2026-03-01
pdf: '/pdfs/inverted-mountain.pdf'
hero_image: '/images/inverted-mountain-hero.jpg'
hero_image_alt: 'Cover page of The Inverted Mountain: Why Every Step Toward Environmental Superintelligence Is Cheaper Than the Last'
supporting_files: []
---

First-principles synthesis of the physics, economics, and policy implications of information-substituted environmental stewardship. The trajectory has the unusual property that each step toward the summit costs less than the last.

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