power and void

There is an intimate relationship between power and void.

- Depriving humans (and animals) of space is perceived as a cruel exercise of power. This is the main function of prisons.

- There is something called a personal space. We recognise it only when others transgress it. Devoid of personal space we feel powerless. Even machines need a minimal amount of space around them to function properly. 

- Body postures occupying more space look more powerful. Hence the reason why many animals have evolved mechanisms for deceiving other animals about their body sizes.

- The figure with the greatest power enjoys the most peripheral space, both in real life and in paintings.

- Powerful people prefer to live on higher floors. Being able to gaze from a higher point of view gives them a greater sense of control and lets them more easily monitor others.

- Powerful people prefer to sit on higher chairs and dine on higher tables. As they rise above the crowd, the space around them gets greater and they become more noticeable by others.

- We leave space between ourselves and people we find threatening. In case of an attack, this gives us greater time to defend ourselves. Feeling more secure makes us feel more powerful.

- Of course, not all spaces are of equal value. Highly demanded spaces are expensive and only the rich (and therefore the powerful) can afford them. 

- We prefer to live in apartments with plenty of space in front of them. This aesthetic bias is probably due to some sort of a deep security concern. (We want to be able to detect a threat before it is too late.) Of course, only the rich can afford apartments with unobstructed views.

- We prefer to live in apartments with higher ceilings. Again, only the rich can afford them.

- When someone in a position of power dies, others fight to fill the resulting "power void".

- First laws in history were property-related and the first property laws were estate-related. (Of course, laws are nothing but systematisations of exercise of power, and estates are nothing but terrestrial voids.)

- Imperialism and colonialism are political manifestations of acquisitions of power via spatial expansions.

- Many physicists believe that vacuum energy is the cost of having space. (Of course energy equals power.)

Homework: Investigate the relationship between power and time which you can model as one-dimensional void.