Clair Quentin, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University, UK

‘Quentin’s book represents a radical departure from existing ways of understanding a biosphere in epochal crisis. It asks: what if the system driving global inequality and ecological catastrophe – capital – is a thing? And what if that thing, alien to our biosphere as conventionally understood, is alive – not as a metaphor, but as something literally, “xenobiologically” true?’

• ContentsPreface PART I THE NON-EQUILIBRIUM THERMODYNAMICS OF VALUE1 Introduction to the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of value 2 Thermodynamic depth and physical surplus 3 Thermodynamic depth and social surplus 4 The xenobiology of capital PART II CAPITAL AND REVENUE5 The organism–environment boundary of capital 6 The revenue function of intangible assets 7 The revenue function of the state 8 Value theory, politics and policy References

Clair Quentin, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University, UK

‘Quentin’s book represents a radical departure from existing ways of understanding a biosphere in epochal crisis. It asks: what if the system driving global inequality and ecological catastrophe – capital – is a thing? And what if that thing, alien to our biosphere as conventionally understood, is alive – not as a metaphor, but as something literally, “xenobiologically” true?’

• ContentsPreface PART I THE NON-EQUILIBRIUM THERMODYNAMICS OF VALUE1 Introduction to the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of value 2 Thermodynamic depth and physical surplus 3 Thermodynamic depth and social surplus 4 The xenobiology of capital PART II CAPITAL AND REVENUE5 The organism–environment boundary of capital 6 The revenue function of intangible assets 7 The revenue function of the state 8 Value theory, politics and policy References

Clair Quentin, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University, UK

‘Quentin’s book represents a radical departure from existing ways of understanding a biosphere in epochal crisis. It asks: what if the system driving global inequality and ecological catastrophe – capital – is a thing? And what if that thing, alien to our biosphere as conventionally understood, is alive – not as a metaphor, but as something literally, “xenobiologically” true?’

• ContentsPreface PART I THE NON-EQUILIBRIUM THERMODYNAMICS OF VALUE1 Introduction to the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of value 2 Thermodynamic depth and physical surplus 3 Thermodynamic depth and social surplus 4 The xenobiology of capital PART II CAPITAL AND REVENUE5 The organism–environment boundary of capital 6 The revenue function of intangible assets 7 The revenue function of the state 8 Value theory, politics and policy References