Erick Mead

I think it has problems. The first is the level of abstraction. The power of Western thought is in its abstractive faculty That is what makes ever closer analysis possible. Chinese thought is much more concrete, holistic and relational. "Force" is a level of abstraction above what Ki is dealing with.

Second, potential energy is for forces that are conservative (not path dependent) once they do actual work. Disregarding the path means that one disregards differing interim interactions that MUST occur in the real world on different paths (i.e. -- less than"ideal"), which Chinese thought would never disregard.

On the other hand, energy in potential and energy of work as a pairing of a unitary whole in terms of Ki are not far off the mark. What is missing is the problem of mass, inertia, and entropy -- which may be understood relativistically as energy lost to the reshaping of space by moving that mass. The quality of mass is

Angular momentum transfer can deal with all of this in terms that fit traditional understandings of ki applied to various interactions considered "different" in western terms. Even heat is vibration, and heat transferred into an object is an increase in the vibrational angular momentum of its constituent atoms. Friction similarly is the transfer of angular momentum increasing in surface vibration of atoms disturbed by the passage of another object within the range of Van der Waals and electroweak forces. Chemical potential energy is quite literally tightly compressed springs of molecular bonds ready to increase their oscillation wildly upon release (explosion of heat).

I'll try to address your specific points.

Clearly, intent is part of the understanding of Ki. however, intent is only active is it is received by an entity that is "aware" of that intent. Whitehead in "Process and Reality" tries to avoid the vitalism unnecessarily implied by terminology of "awareness" or "perception" by adopting an otherwise long disused word without those connotations: "prehend."

One can analogize that differing bodies of charge prehend or are "aware" of one another because of the field that develops between them. Clearly this is an electric potential. This only occurs because they are attuned by their charge to perceive or "prehend" one another via the field.

Neutral objects are neither perceived by objects forming the field, nor perceive the objects via the field, but if the field does work (saying spinning a dynamo magnetically or collapsing in a current they can still be affected by the work of the objects forming the field, while unaffected by the field itself. But unless the objects move in the field, the system does no actual work. Since an understanding of Ki would properly address the neutral as well as the charged objects ( although somewhat differently) the neutral objects do not form part of the potential and therefore potential energy is not apt as a mapping of ki in this example.

Conversely, the particular kind of oscillations of a electron, in western understanding form a negative "charge," while the kind of oscillation in protons form positive "charge." Both are defined in terms of angular momentum of oscillation. At absolute zero all particle vibrations cease, and all charge and potential ceases (apart form the zero-point vacuum energy). Ki with its inherent plus/minus quality remains proper as an understanding at this level, the offsetting plus/minus burbling of the vacuum can never be stilled, but it has zero potential since there is no lower energy level.

I am not clear on how this relates to potential energy. It seems more of an observation on minimizing entropy.

I think my points above on "awareness" or "prehension" address this.

If understood in terms of angular momentum, motion assumes a phase relationship that is easily understood in these terms, attractive or repulsive in operation. It is easily altered from one to the other at the scales in which aikido operates, and can have its "spooky" bits in the manipulation of turning limbs and bodies by off-axis conservation in precession. Even straight "linear" motion has angular momentum with regard to an off-axis point of observation, and therefore may be understood in these terms, since ki is an inherently relational concept.

Things like dropping the 6 guys holding the DTR demonstrator up off the ground (video in earlier post) are done using this principle (and you can see it if you know what you are looking for). He shifts his mass laterally with an oscillation, that takes him off their base to support it and they all topple over. The action is not "like" a dolphin kick to swim in water -- it IS that motion -- with the same effect, he moves laterally, and they fall down, because they cannot hold themselves up, much less him.