The Thermal Commons hit twelve years this month. Every neighborhood in Copenhagen owns its own heating loop—waste heat from bakeries warming nearby apartments, server farms keeping swimming pools toasty, brewery cooling redirected to summer AC. No central monopoly, no market pricing, just physics and reciprocity.

Started in Nørrebro after the energy crisis of 2035. Someone noticed the pizzeria exhaust could heat three floors above it. Someone else built the heat exchanger. The city council tried to regulate it, then just funded more pipes.

Now every block has a thermal map. You contribute what you generate, take what you need, vote quarterly on expansion. Vesterbro routes bakery morning heat to schools. Islands Brygge cycles harbor cold-water through data centers in summer.

Lars calls it "thermodynamic communism." He's on the steering committee. Chairs the winter optimization working group.

Turns out people are pretty good at sharing heat when you give them the infrastructure.

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