Changing one parameter: when agency becomes almost freeAfter the cost of cognitive labour collapses

In the world derived over the previous twelve steps, one cost appears almost everywhere: the cost of having others read, calculate, judge and act on one's behalf. Ordinary people hand their money to a few professional institutions, a principal can see only a manager's past performance, defaults can only be designed for the circumstances of the majority: all of this has to do with that cost. Now change only this one parameter. Let the price of this labour collapse and keep everything else the same: grain is still harvested once a year, ships can still sink, people still favour the present. Then derive again the steps that it affects.

1. Change only one parameter

The method is unchanged: change one thing at a time and look at the result. What changes is the price of cognitive labour, that is, the labour of reading, calculating, writing, comparing and carrying out instructions. What stays the same is time, risk and human preferences. The advantage of this approach is that it separates "the changes brought by a new technology" from "the problems finance has always had": any constraint that survives the new derivation is not one this technology can solve.

2. Which steps to rerun

The affected steps change in different ways. Some constraints loosen, such as the cost of research and comparison. Some tighten instead, such as checking what a tireless agent has done. Some do not change at all, such as time and risk themselves.

Which steps to rerun

Above are the twelve steps of Part One; below are six chapters of Part Two. Choose a chapter to see which steps it reruns and what question it must answer.

"Expected" is the judgement made before the derivation; with all seven chapters written, the results of the derivation agree with it. Chapter 13 first establishes which part of the cost this parameter lowers and reruns no step.

3. Summary of Part Two

Changing only the price of cognitive labour and deriving again the steps of delegation, commitment, information, markets and bias, the conclusion fits in one sentence: scribes make research, comparison, monitoring and execution almost free, but bring new constraints of guarantees, checking, herding and the exploitation of bias; the information advantage shifts to exclusive data and speed; and not one of time, systemic risk or irreversible loss disappears.

This shows what a product built around an agent should do. Where constraints loosen, give the savings back to the user. Where they tighten, fill the gap with accountability, records, permissions and written goals. Where nothing changes, tell the user honestly what the product cannot do.

Summary of Part Two: loosened, tightened, shifted and unchanged

After the price of cognitive labour collapses, the constraints of Part One fall into four groups. Choose a group to see its constraints and the corresponding chapters.

4. Where the principles sit

Part Two yields new principles and also retests the principles already obtained in Part One: after the parameter changes, do their premises still hold?

Where the principles sit

Across: the order of the derivation. Up: the year each principle was proposed. Tap a dot to see the principle and who proposed it. A principle that comes later in the logic but earlier in history shows practice growing institutions before theory explained them.

Dots are collected automatically from each chapter's principle cards. The vertical axis is split at 1900; earlier years are compressed. Several principles from one chapter are spread left to right in order of appearance. Hollow dots are principles re-examined in Part Two, drawn at the chapter where they are re-examined.