Resonance Footprint: Proposing an Energy Usage Standard for an Attributable Civilization

Contemporary discourse often equates technological advancement with civilizational progress, while debates on energy usage primarily focus on quantitative metrics such as carbon footprints. This paper argues that such approaches are insufficient as they overlook whether the energy consumed by technology contributes to or erodes the human capacity for meaningful judgement. Drawing from Judgemental Philosophy (JP), which posits Constructivity (C1), Coherence (C2), and Resonance (R) as structural conditions for human meaning-making, we identify a risk of 'Resonance Collapse' when technology supplants these human judgemental faculties. This paper proposes the 'Resonance Footprint' as a new normative framework and a qualitatively-oriented metric. Its core proposition is that all energy use by technology can only be structurally justified if it contributes to the possibility of human resonance. Unlike existing metrics focused on physical efficiency, the Resonance Footprint evaluates energy use based on its impact on the attributability of judgement and meaning to humans, aiming to preserve and enhance human C1-C2-R capabilities. Using the energy consumption of large AI model training as a key example, we illustrate how this framework shifts the justification from mere carbon neutrality to technology's role in augmenting or diminishing human judgement. The paper concludes by highlighting the necessity for follow-up research on methodologies to evaluate the 'contribution to resonance possibility' (including qualitative approaches) and for the application of the Resonance Footprint concept across diverse technological fields beyond AI, aspiring towards an 'attributable civilization' where technology serves human meaning and judgemental agency.