The Return of Physical Metrics: Energy, Water and Time as Units of Value
Publication date: February 15, 2026
Publication for
MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Department of Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources
Introduction. The Problem of Measurement
The crossing of five thousand dollars per troy ounce by gold should be viewed not as a market event but as an event of the measurement system.
A price exists only when a stable unit of comparison exists. When the unit itself begins to change, all values change simultaneously. This appears as rising cost, while in fact the measuring scale collapses.
Modern money continues to enable transactions. Payments clear, markets function, balances reconcile. Yet its ability to express the relationship between labor, resources and result disappears. The price records only the condition of the nominal system and no longer describes reality.
The economy stops comparing and begins merely counting.
In this context the rise of gold is not a cause but an indicator. The metal becomes the last physical shadow of the previous monetary architecture, showing that the measuring function of currencies has been lost.
The Historical Pattern of Changing Measures
In early stages of society value was expressed through essential resources. Grain and livestock served simultaneously as wealth and unit of account because their quantity could not be arbitrarily increased.
With the expansion of trade societies moved to metals. Silver and gold provided a universal scale due to stable physical properties and natural scarcity. The economy obtained a measure independent of authority.
In the twentieth century a transition to symbolic currencies occurred. Value began to be defined not by matter but by trust in institutions. This accelerated development but removed the objective anchor of the system.
For several decades growth in production concealed the problem. As the gap widened between financial magnitudes and the material base, the measuring function began to erode. The present stage marks the completion of that era.
Why Nominal Money Ceases to Measure
A measure must preserve comparability between past and future. If the unit changes faster than the objects being measured, comparison becomes impossible.
The quantity of money can grow faster than real goods. Identical numbers then begin to represent different amounts of reality. Formally price remains, but its meaning changes.
The financial system amplifies the gap. A significant portion of value arises outside material production. Magnitudes appear that cannot be compared with expenditures of energy and human time.
A paradox emerges. Income grows, but access to basic resources declines. This is not a psychological effect but a sign of the disappearance of the measuring function of money.
Return to Physical Constants
Any system that loses its internal scale returns to invariant parameters. In economics these parameters are physical quantities.
Energy is the universal production measure. Every activity represents the transformation of energy. Technologies differ, but the essence is identical. Production equals the expenditure of energy to change the state of matter. Therefore energy becomes the objective equivalent of economic activity.
Water determines the possibility of complex societies. It limits agriculture, industry, urbanization and demographics. A territory with unstable water balance cannot maintain long term economic stability regardless of financial development.
Time is the social constant. Human life is finite, and the economy redistributes human time. When invested time no longer corresponds to access to resources, the system loses stability.
Energy describes production.
Water describes environmental sustainability.
Time describes human participation.
The Role of Gold in the Transition Period
Gold does not create the new system. It records the destruction of the old.
The metal remains stable, therefore when trust in currencies declines it reflects the scale of change. Yet it cannot measure a complex technological economy. It does not incorporate production processes, energy expenditure or human time.
Gold closes the monetary era but does not form the next one.
Architecture of the Future Economy
The next economic model will combine symbolic accounting with a physical foundation. Money will remain but will lose the status of a source of value and become an accounting interface.
Value will be determined through measurable parameters. Production will correspond to energy, territorial stability to water balance, and social equilibrium to the distribution of human time.
Financial instruments will continue to exist, but their function will be reduced to recording real relationships rather than creating them.
Conclusion. The End of the Nominal Scale
The crossing of historical gold price levels signifies the end of a period in which symbolic value could exist separately from physical reality.
The economy returns to measurable quantities because any complex system ultimately obeys the laws of matter.
Value is determined by what cannot be printed or declared.
Resources define the meaning of money rather than the reverse.
The present changes therefore represent not a crisis but a transition to a parametric economy in which value is defined by existence rather than agreement.
Fixation date: February 15, 2026
MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Department of Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources