The steam engine is supposed to make redundant the reliance on human muscles. But in fact, when we look carefully, we see that rather than a shift between energy regimes and series of energy transitions animated by these technologies, we see actually an intensification in the reliance on human muscles, an intensification of biomass and the reliance on the muscles of animals - seen through the eyes of the planet, that has tremendous repercussions for our condition today. If we are yet to see an energy transition in the sense of leaving an energy behind, if our story is one of accumulation and intensification, then we have little reason to expect a post-oil or post-fossil fuel future.