The concept of "life energy" is an interesting one, reminiscing of ancient esoteric teachings, things like Chi or Ying/yang, vril or even the force. The concept of mining the self, as opposed of other entities mining your life force is one that is being introduced by cryptocurrencies. Steemit as we know is just the beginning, people are waking and realizing that your time and life has real value, and that value can be quantazied and monetized. For hundreds of years systems were put in place to control your "life force"/" time" sadly by other humans, now those systems are being disrupted.
RE: Why Steemit has the elite trembling.