SETE 2.0: The Phase-Space Dynamics of Circulating Surplus, Ideological Goal-Seeking, and Systemic Collapse

This paper expands upon the Socio-Economic Thermodynamic Entropy (SETE) model to formally integrate the mechanisms of structural inequality, information theory, and ideological goal-seeking. Whilst the original SETE framework established the political economy as an inertial mass orbiting a Resource Entropy Singularity (S_crit), it left the distribution of surplus exergy and the system’s directional imperatives largely implicit. Here, we introduce the ‘Wealth Siphon’ coefficient (α), decomposing it to explicitly model rent-seeking, wealth hoarding, and the temporal blockages of financialisation, establishing the baseline for Effective Circulating Power (P_eff). We demonstrate that α acts as a Shannon Entropy filter, whilst Institutional Mass (M_I) functions as a measure of information density that actively warps socio-economic phase-space. By mapping these variables alongside an Ideological Control Function (G), we prove that a civilisation’s trajectory towards collapse becomes mathematically locked at the Entropic Event Horizon (H) long before absolute energy depletion. Furthermore, we introduce the concepts of Alarmism Fatigue (γ) and Signal Occlusion, demonstrating how successful interventions in past crises render the system algorithmically blind to future threats. Under the ‘Strong Enlightenment’ paradigms, increases in gross exergy (P_gross) and financialisation actively accelerate systemic instability by amplifying Entropic Gravity.