  Relativistic heavy ion collisions have reached energies that enable the
creation of a novel state of matter termed the quark-gluon plasma. Many
observables point to a picture of the medium as rapidly equilibrating and
expanding as a nearly inviscid fluid. In this article, we explore the evolution
of experimental flow observables as a function of collision energy and attempt
to reconcile the observed similarities across a broad energy regime in terms of
the initial conditions and viscous hydrodynamics. If the initial spatial
anisotropies are very similar for all collision energies from 39 GeV to 2.76
TeV, we find that viscous hydrodynamics might be consistent with the level of
agreement for v2 of unidentified hadrons as a function of pT . However, we
predict a strong collision energy dependence for the proton v2(pT). The results
presented in this paper highlight the need for more systematic studies and a
re-evaluation of previously stated sensitivities to the early time dynamics and
properties of the medium.
