assembly-economics/models/ParameterGrounding.md
tegwick ee7b17da5e ASSEMBLY-WP-0006-T02: ground organism depreciation, robustness checks
- dO grounded at 0.20/yr (software, R&D capital, AI hardware evidence);
  investment/learning rescaled so the baseline organism path is unchanged
- robustness.py: key readings hold for grounded dO and brackets on channel
  self-reinforcement and wealth conversion; P3 effect size grows at strong
  self-reinforcement
- models/ParameterGrounding.md: register of grounded / bracketed / assumed /
  calibrated parameters, open grounding needs

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Assistant: claude-code
Assistant-Model: opus
Assistant-Process: 1494246@bnt-lap001
Assistant-Session: caf6de6f-f9e4-47ce-a584-49baa271fa4b
2026-10-12 08:27:08 +02:00

76 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<!--
Created 2026-10-12 under ASSEMBLY-WP-0006-T02. A register of how each key
GADM parameter is justified. Update it whenever a parameter is grounded,
bracketed or changed.
-->
# Parameter Grounding Register
**Status:** v0.1. Most GADM parameters are still assumptions. This register
says which ones have evidence behind them, which are bracketed by
sensitivity analysis only, and which are open.
Status codes: **G** grounded in external evidence · **B** bracketed: not
grounded, but key readings checked across a range · **A** assumed, not yet
checked · **C** calibration choice (set to reproduce a target behaviour).
| Parameter | Meaning | Value | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| time unit | one period | 1 year | C | WP-0005-T01; implied timescales checked in `GADM-0.2.md` § 3.4 |
| `dO` | depreciation of organism capability | 0.20 (range 0.15–0.35) per year; GADM-0.2/0.3: 0.06 | **G** | Software depreciates geometrically over roughly 3–10 years (CBO-based summary); business R&D capital depreciation is generally above the traditional 15 % (Li & Hall 2020, *Review of Income and Wealth* 66(1)); economic life of AI GPUs is about 2–6 years. Organism capability combines all three. |
| `aO`, `ell`, `oseed` | organism investment, learning with use, seeding | 0.50, 0.83, 0.033 (×3.33) | C | Rescaled with `dO` so the baseline organism path stays as before (0.46 at t = 25, 0.37 at t = 100). The **level** of organism capability is therefore still ungrounded. |
| `aext` | attention extraction | 0.275; GADM-0.2: 0.12 | **G** (order of magnitude) | ATUS 2023: 5.2 h/day leisure, 2.7 h TV; social media about 2 h 20 min/day. Engagement media take about half of discretionary time (`GADM-0.3.md` § 4.1). |
| `r_k` | channel self-reinforcement | 0.3 (0.4 discovery) | **B** | Not grounded. Readings checked for 0.15–0.45 (`results/robustness.md`). |
| `k_w` | wealth → control conversion | 0.04 | **B** | Not grounded. Readings checked for 0.02–0.20. |
| `birth`, ageing and death rates | demography | 1/45; 1/20, 1/45, 1/15; 1/8 | C | Gives a stationary structure of about 23 / 51 / 17 / 9 % at replacement fertility, plausible for an aged high-income society. |
| `hform` | durable capability formation | 0.15 | C | Chosen so children's durable capability settles near 0.6. |
| `v0`, `aK`, `n1` | experimentation, capacity build, entry | 2.5, 0.35, 0.30 | C | Keep the GADM-0.2 baseline from collapsing (`GADM-0.2.md` § 3.4). |
| all other rates | — | see code | A | First guesses in the 0.03–0.3 per-year range. |
## Robustness of key readings (T02)
`simulations/gadm02/results/robustness.md`, GADM-0.4 with cohorts and
durable capability. Channel counters are recalibrated for every variant.
| Reading | dO 0.06 → 0.20 | r 0.15 / 0.45 | k_w 0.02 / 0.20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generative regime best, automated capitalism worst | holds | holds | holds |
| Scenario ranking (Spearman ρ vs. grounded) | 1.00 | 0.98 / 1.00 | 1.00 / 1.00 |
| Generative regime has the lowest domination | holds | holds | holds |
| Organism lever order lineage > membrane > attention | holds | holds | holds |
| P3: full wealth tax lowers P by < 0.06 where membrane/lineage dominate | holds (−0.055) | holds (−0.035) / **fails (−0.078)** | holds |
Readings:
1. **Grounding `dO` changes almost nothing**, because the organism level was
held fixed by rescaling. The GADM-0.2 Sobol result ("dO explains a third of
baseline variance") really measures sensitivity to the **level** of
organism capability, which `dO` sets together with investment and learning.
That level is the next thing to ground, for example from AI-capital or
task-automation shares.
2. **The structural readings are robust** across the brackets for the two
ungrounded power parameters.
3. **P3 is robust in direction, but its size depends on r.** With strong
self-reinforcement, market and political channels sit closer to their
tipping points, so a wealth tax tips them down and becomes more effective
(ΔP −0.078). Even then, total domination stays dominated by membrane and
lineage control.
## Open grounding needs
1. The level of organism capability K_Ω (AI capital share, task-automation
share).
2. The channel self-reinforcement r_k (persistence of market leadership,
platform tipping evidence).
3. The wealth → influence conversion k_w (political-economy evidence on
lobbying and influence).
4. Durable capability formation `hform` and the ½ / ½ durable/current split
(human-capital literature on the persistence of early education).
## Sources
- Li, W. C. Y. & Hall, B. H. (2020). Depreciation of Business R&D Capital. *Review of Income and Wealth* 66(1): 161–180. https://www.bea.gov/research/papers/2016/depreciation-business-rd-capital
- BEA, Estimation of Software in the US National Accounts. https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-05/Estimation-of-Software-in-the-US-National-Accounts.pdf
- Software depreciation schedule (CBO-based summary). https://www.route-fifty.com/digital-government/2002/05/by-the-numbers/286193/
- AI GPU economic life: https://siliconangle.com/2025/11/22/resetting-gpu-depreciation-ai-factories-bend-dont-break-useful-life-assumptions/ ; https://drops.mts.now/ai-capex/wiki/economics/gpu-depreciation/
- BLS American Time Use Survey. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/PDF/atus.pdf