Chapter 5, "Limitless Power: Post-Scarcity in Energy," falls under Part II, titled "New Travellers," which explores emerging technologies in areas such as automation, energy, resources, health, and food to show how the foundations are cohering for a society that moves "beyond both scarcity and work". The chapter introduces the profound role that energy and its sources have played in shaping the previous historical shifts, known as disruptions. The First Disruption, marked by agriculture around 12,000 years ago, saw humans rely on domesticated animals, their own bodies, and elements for power. This was succeeded by the Second Disruption starting in the late eighteenth century, which was defined by the arrival of James Watt’s steam engine, providing an abundant and reliable supply of power derived from fossil fuels.

The chapter begins by framing the shift to limitless power within the context of the Anthropocene and the climate crisis, noting that the Second Disruption's dependence on fossil fuels inadvertently changed Earth's ecosystems by causing global temperatures to rise. The transition to limitless power is presented as both an ecological imperative and a technological inevitability, driven by the fact that the sun provides virtually free, limitless energy—many thousands of times more than humanity currently consumes. This aligns with the overall theme of the Third Disruption bringing about "extreme supply" in multiple areas. The chapter explores how technologies like photovoltaic (PV) cells are subject to the experience curve (where costs decline as capacity doubles), suggesting that a complete global transition to renewables will eventually lead to perpetually cheaper energy, thus achieving post-scarcity in energy.