Essay
The Unthinking Advance: A Thermodynamic and Computational Analysis of Civilization's Progress
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Formalizes Whitehead’s Law of Unthinking as a thermodynamic principle of civilizational progress, tracing the calculus of cognitive automation from prehistory to the AI age.
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Markdown source: https://jedanderson.org/essays/unthinking-advance.md
Source on GitHub: /src/content/essays/unthinking-advance.md
Cite this
BibTeX
@misc{anderson_2026_unthinking_advance,
author = {Jed Anderson},
title = {The Unthinking Advance: A Thermodynamic and Computational Analysis of Civilization's Progress},
year = {2026},
url = {https://jedanderson.org/essays/unthinking-advance},
note = {Accessed: 2026-05-13}
} APA
Anderson, J. (2026). The Unthinking Advance: A Thermodynamic and Computational Analysis of Civilization's Progress. Retrieved from https://jedanderson.org/essays/unthinking-advance
MLA
Anderson, Jed. "The Unthinking Advance: A Thermodynamic and Computational Analysis of Civilization's Progress." Jed Anderson, May 13, 2026, https://jedanderson.org/essays/unthinking-advance.