Unsustainable Lyrics
In all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system, the entropy of that system increases.
New energy cannot be created and high grade energy is being destroyed. An economy based on endless growth is
Unsus-
Unsustain- unsustain- unsust-
Unsus-
unsustaina- unsustainable
Unsus-
unsustain- unsustain- unsust-
Unsus- unsus-
You're unsustainable
In an isolated system the entropy can only increase. A species set on endless growth is
Unsus-
Unsustain- unsustain- unsust
Unsus-
unsustaina- unsustainable
Unsus-
unsustain- unsustain- unsust-
Unsus- unsus-
You're unsustainable
What I took away from this song is that the way the governments of the world (particularly the US) are using their resources (energy) is unsustainable in the long run. The world is becoming increasingly technological, and over the next few decades we are going to see even more of our service jobs being done by machines. Machines rely on energy in order to operate, and as Muse points out: "All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases." So unless we can create other realistic sources of energy, (which we are putting in a very limited amount of funding for) we are going to face an energy crisis. Most of the energy we rely on to run our machines today relies on fossil fuels which, as Muse says, are finite: "New energy cannot be created and high grade energy is being destroyed. An economy based on endless growth is Unsustainable."
There's no another way to interpret this song: the message's very clear, unlike the ones in the lyric of their other songs!
There's no another way to interpret this song: the message's very clear, unlike the ones in the lyric of their other songs!
That is one SCARY ROBOT!!!! Epic song! Both parts of it are just beautifully put together. Thanks Muse
I will qualify my comment with the statement that the band is literally not leaving this to interpretation. They are proclaiming their nihilism to the world and succumbing to Luddite 'sky-is-falling' fantasies.
Exogenesis is a beautiful masterpiece in story-telling and that's how I will always interpret it. However with this 'song' it's telling me in no uncertain terms that humanity is doomed and if we don't stagnate ourselves voluntarily then we will use up all the energy and die off.
I don't claim to be any kind of scientist but anyone who's even heard of quantum physics knows that the second verse about 'the fundamental laws of thermodynamics' is now outdated nonsense. So just knowing that will tell you that this diatribe is at least partly wrong.
I did not know what entropy exactly was before I looked it up along with 'isolated system' and ended up finding out the first verse is even more ridiculous! 'Isolated Systems' do not naturally exist (unless you count the universe) and entropy naturally flows into 'equilibrium'. Meaning that unless other forces become involved, energy will disperse to 'equalize' across the entire system (universe).
What exactly does Muse think Humans are? Do they think that if we ever run out of oil we'll just sit on our asses and not figure out another energy source? That we'd just let our standards of living fall to 3rd world status without doing everything we could to avoid it? That we'll live forever on 19th century limited crude energy sources?
Even if we did Quantum Physics will probably eventually allow us to recreate unlimited amounts of energy.
Muse makes very good music and I don't have any problem with bands expressing their opinions in their music. However when it's presented in this fashion like it's some kind of serious 'these are indisputable FACTS' in a reporting news kind of fashion I have a huge problem with it. Especially reinforcing this bullcrap 'humans are evil/doomed' trope in whatever fashion it takes.