Quarks, code, and the cosmos: The next power shift in human history

A few months ago, while I was working late into the night, my MacBook crashed. Not a simple freeze — a full system meltdown. I was running a simulation, trying to model a strange new kind of plasma: one that doesn’t exist in the periodic table but perhaps did in the early universe. Frustrated, I shut down the machine and stepped out under the clear sky. Somewhere between Orion’s belt and my backup generator’s hum, it hit me. We’re building machines that are smarter than anything we’ve ever created — but we’ve barely thought about what will power them. Today, Artificial Intelligence is the new brain of civilisation. But brains, whether biological or digital, need energy. A lot of it. And the energy sources we’ve used for the last century — coal, oil, even solar and nuclear — are increasingly inadequate for what lies ahead. That night, I realised we’re staring at a massive planetary contradiction. The intelligence curve is rising. But the energy curve? It’s breaking. And that’s where the wildest idea I’ve ever worked on comes in: quark-electron plasma reactors. If it sounds like science fiction, that’s only because the future always does — until it becomes fact.

Let’s start with something familiar. Your phone, your smart fridge, your YouTube recommendations — they all run on AI. But behind every convenience is a colossal energy footprint. Training OpenAI’s GPT-4 reportedly consumed over 1,300 megawatt-hours — enough to power a small Indian town for a year. Now scale that globally. Data centres alone already consume more electricity than the entire United Kingdom. By 2030, AI is projected to consume up to 8-10 per cent of the world’s electricity. That’s before we’ve even factored in future AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), quantum computing, or AI-driven cities. And here’s the catch: you can’t run a galaxy-brain AI on a grid powered by fossil fuels and flickering solar panels. The future of intelligence demands a new physics of power.

The most exotic energy source in the Universe

So what is quark-electron plasma? At the most basic level, everything we know is made of atoms — protons, neutrons, and electrons. But even protons and neutrons are made of quarks, held together by the strong nuclear force. Under extreme temperatures — like those in the early universe or in CERN’s particle collider — these quarks can break free and form a strange soup with electrons, called quark-electron plasma. It’s not just hot. It’s unimaginably energetic. A single teaspoon of quark plasma, if stabilised, could produce more energy than an entire city block burns in a year. Quark-electron plasma reactors (QEPRs) aim to do the impossible: generate, stabilise, and extract energy from this exotic state of matter. We’ve already taken the first steps. In 2005, scientists at CERN created quark-gluon plasma — its close cousin — for a fraction of a second. What we now need is sustained containment, controlled extraction, and intelligent design. That’s where AI re-enters the story.

The energy-intelligence loop

Here’s the deeper pattern: AI is the only system smart enough to help us design these reactors. And QEPRs might be the only systems powerful enough to run future AIs. They need each other. Like neurons and glucose. Like fire and oxygen. Together, they form what I call the energy-intelligence loop — a self-reinforcing cycle where intelligence builds power, and power feeds intelligence. Already, AI is being used to stabilise plasma in nuclear fusion experiments at MIT and ITER. Quark-electron plasma is far more complex — but also more promising. Once this loop is built, it could do more than just solve the energy crisis. It could lift civilisation to an entirely new plane.

A second Copernican shift

Every few centuries, humanity undergoes what I call a Copernican reset. We realise something shocking: that we’ve misunderstood the centre of things. Copernicus told us Earth wasn’t the centre of the universe. Darwin told us we weren’t the pinnacle of life. Now, QEPRs and AI together may tell us: we’re not even the authors of our next civilisation. We may be its catalysts — but the systems we build — plasma reactors run by machine intelligence — could outlast us, outthink us, and reshape our place in the cosmos. That’s not scary. That’s beautiful. If we get it right.

Why India matters

India missed the bus on oil. It played catch-up in solar. But here — on the edge of this strange new energy frontier — it has a chance to lead. You have the physics talent, the AI ecosystem, and perhaps most crucially, the willingness to leapfrog. A national mission to develop QEPR prototypes, backed by global scientists, Indian engineers, and ethical AI researchers, could put India on the world map — not just as a consumer of innovation, but as its co-author. Imagine: a quark-electron reactor humming quietly beneath the Deccan plateau, designed by AI from Bengaluru, stabilising plasma discovered at CERN, and powering data centres in Hyderabad, hospitals in Jharkhand, or clean water plants in Chad. This is the kind of future India can help invent — not alone, but with boldness.

Ethics in the age of superpower 

Of course, with great power comes... geopolitics. What happens if one country monopolises this technology? What if QEPRs are used for energy blackmail? What if AI-plasma hybrids become militarised? The parallels with the nuclear age are chilling. But unlike the 20th century, we now have tools for global transparency — open science platforms, blockchain verification of reactor operations, and international AI coalitions. What we need is public conversation, not just classified labs. We need shared guardrails, not just national ambitions. We need to build the future before someone else builds it behind closed doors.

A final night under the stars

Back to that night. My simulation didn’t survive. But something else did: a realisation. We often think of energy and AI as engineering problems. But they’re more than that. They’re philosophical questions about how we wish to inhabit the universe. Will we build intelligence that serves life — or extracts from it? Will we harness particles from the first seconds of time to power a more equal civilisation — or just another empire? These are questions no AI can answer for us. But maybe, just maybe, quarks and code will help us ask them better.

Nishant Sahdev is a theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States.