{"id": "card_n_9c78781d718f", "kind": "note", "title": "A parable — Carnot", "body": "An engineer believed he could build a machine that took less and gave more. He built and rebuilt for many years. The machine he made was very good, but it could never give back more than was given. He had been seeking, all along, to be a god.\n\nAsk yourself: Where are you trying to take more than you have been given?\n\nFLOOR — protect against the law you cannot break. Conservation is a fence; nothing crosses it.\n\n(A Narrow Highway original teaching parable — not a parable of Jesus; a made story that carries a true edge.)", "source": {"label": "Narrow Highway — original parable", "url": "", "ref": "almanac_thermo_carnot_limit", "authority_tier": "operator"}, "shelf": "codex", "box": "parables", "bands": ["parable", "original", "witness", "teaching", "conservation_balance", "physical_substance", "FLOOR"], "connections": [], "author": "operator", "created_at": "2026-07-10T21:00:05.284658+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-10T21:00:05.284658+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "surface": "witness", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 0, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "96f8e65b7ee49a180a9648ca657b2f663b7fec48314aafe0c4158fc658331442"}