Index // 5 slow variables
The
variables
A slow variable changes gradually and sets the conditions for everything that changes quickly on top of it. These are the ones this publication tracks. Each entry links every edition that touched it, so the index becomes the map of the argument over time.
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The cost of copying
Measured as // marginal cost of one more copy
Moved once, from about a dollar to nothing, between 1990 and 2000. Set the conditions for everything the Internet became. Almost certainly finished moving.
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The cost of production
Measured as // marginal cost of one more plausible artefact
The successor variable. Falling by an order of magnitude every few years since roughly 2022, for text, images and code. Where the next thirty years of institutional damage will come from.
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Provenance
Measured as // cost of proving who made a thing
Rising, because production is cheap and attribution is not. The likely replacement for copyright as the thing the law spends a generation failing to bolt on.
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Institutional trust
Measured as // willingness to believe a claim because of who made it
Slow to build, fast to break, and the thermocline beneath most platform collapses. Not yet written about directly.
No edition yet
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Attention
Measured as // hours of undirected human focus available per day
Fixed supply, rising demand, and the bottleneck the platform era was built to own. Loses its scarcity value once production is free. Not yet written about directly.
No edition yet