Definition: the electricity symbol 

It is impossible to use the electricity symbol if we are to retain its fullest potential. It is impossible because there exists a wide range of electrical phenomena and these have very different, often completely contradictory qualities. To call anyone of these phenomena electricity is to deny the fact that all the other phenomena are electricity and represent different forms of change. Thus the use of the electricity symbol is almost always unsustainable, as it denies stewardship/change on scale.

Examples of the completely variant properties of electrical phenomena include the fact that they can be visible and invisible; slow to near stationary and fast as the speed of light; and totally weightless and have a small weight. If electricity is a class of phenomena, then it cannot be measured. However we can measure the unique properties of individual phenomena.

Thus give each electrical phenomenon its own symbol so we can measure and thus know it. For example we have electric charges, electrical energy, electrons, electric current, electric fields, voltage, electric power, electrical sparks, electromagnetism, electrical science, electrodynamics, electrical charge imbalance and many other electrical phenomena.  

Similarly conserve the potential of the electricity symbol by always qualifying any use of it. For example speak of bioelectricity, piezoelectricity, triboelectricity (triboelectric effects), thermoelectricity, atmospheric electricity etc.

The use of the electricity symbol in Anglo-American cultures evidences profound denial of stewardship/change. The symbol is almost exclusively associated with Bulk-generated electrical products. Worse, the merchant bankers who control the generation and distribution of these products have, as part of their advertising strategies, contrived the popular use the energy, power and, electricity symbols so they are employed interchangeably. Each is now commonly equated to the other, as in the equation: energy = power = electricity= their Bulk-generated electrical products. 

This lethal, non-science use of these prime symbols began with the development of systems for reticulating electrical products to dwellings in the 1890s. Merchant bankers such as JP Morgan immediately saw how they could exploit the potential of the systems to control global wealth. Initially there was the Battle of the Currents as those with Alternating Currents (AC) grids fought it out with those who owned Direct Current (DC) grids. The AC merchant bankers won this battle because AC had the capacity to transport Bulk-generated electrical products long distances with relative ease.

These merchant bankers have ever since waged a brutal war on all competition to their Bulk-generated products –especially small-scale generation and distributed systems. Perhaps their most potent weapon has been their re-engineering of our prime symbols so they now serve their own narrow, short-term interests. They have largely destroyed science-based uses of them in our Anglo-American culture, thus making our societies almost entirely dependent on their narrow range of products. Now very few people conserve our electrical potential and are able to believe, for instance, in the existence and viability of Micro-generated-electrical products (under one megaWatt –small scale industrial), Dwelling-generated electrical products (kilowatts), appliance-generated electrical products(watts) and nano-generated electrical products.  

For further discussion of the scale of this social malaise, check out the power symbol.

Summary

We are Electrical Beings. Our intelligence is electrical of nature. We reside in electrical universe(s) - electrical charges are found throughout the universe(s), even in the vast regions previously thought to be empty space. In fact 99% of the universe(s) is possibly electrical plasma. Conserve the electricity symbol and know that all electrical phenomena are electricity and no electrical phenomenon is electricity. Give each its own symbol so our children can enjoy their great electrical potential.

With special thanks to William J Beatty  for explaining why I could never understand the question “What is electricity?”.

Enjoy the rewards of being a conservator of the potential of our greatest symbols.

Page last  updated: Aug 2010

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