💧 Vital Capitals in the MAP¶

Modeling value as flow in regenerative coordination¶

🌱 Why Vital Capitals?¶

In the MAP, any agent can offer services to other agents -- defining their own terms by specifying reciprocal promises about what flows between participants through the act of engagement.

In most systems of coordination, value is flattened into narrow forms — usually financial. This flattens our capacity to name, honor, or exchange the full range of what we care about.

The MAP takes a different approach.

We aim to support the richest possible spectrum of human and ecological value — without collapsing it into a single metric or logic.

To do this, MAP introduces the concept of Vital Capitals:

A plural, extensible way to represent what matters
A layered abstraction that supports meaning, coordination, and measurement
An extensible foundation for promises, offers, thresholds, and sustainability quotients (SQs)

Vital Capital is the lifeblood of the MAP.

MAP’s capital model draws from the work of:

Context-Based Sustainability (CBS) (McElroy, 2008)
Multi-Capital Frameworks in integrated reporting
Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth, 2017)
Regenerative Economics (e.g. John Fullerton, Capital Institute)

These sources offer a multi-capital lens for understanding and tracking value beyond financial metrics.

📘 Curious about the term's origins? See Why the MAP Uses the Term “Vital Capitals”

What This Enables¶

Vital Capitals let us:

Model gifts, services, commitments, or contributions — from relational to transactional
Express value in multiple dimensions at once
Coordinate with symbolic or quantitative logic — or both
Sustain local ecosystems through stock/flow dashboards and threshold awareness
Extend value expression to rituals, meaning, care, attention, trust, and presence

MAP offers a scaffold:

General enough for emergent use
Specific enough for software coordination
Extensible enough for diverse cultural, economic, and spiritual paradigms

By minimizing ontological imposition, we maximize expressive freedom —
empowering communities to define, steward, and regenerate what they value most.

To support this, MAP introduces a layered abstraction of value —
rooted in real-world flows, inspired by regenerative economics,
and extensible enough to include both measurable assets and symbolic presence.

🧭 A Layered Landscape of Value¶

MAP organizes value across several layers to honor different forms of meaning, coordination, and measurement:

Layer	Definition	Purpose in MAP
Relational Value	Anything an agent or Space may care about — whether or not it’s modeled.	Philosophical grounding (not scaffolded)
Vital Capitals	Declared types of value that may be flowed, promised, stewarded, or referenced in agreements.	Core MAP abstraction for coordination
Sustainability-Eligible Capitals	Subset of Vital Capitals that are measurable and suitable for SQ computation.	Enables contextual thresholds and tracking
Assets / Resources	Specific, instantiable representations of value (where applicable).	Enables flow logic and operational roles

Some Vital Capitals can be directly flowed or exchanged. Others, like love or trust, can flow without depletion — they are amplified through sharing. Still others, like presence or silence, may not flow in the traditional sense, but can be held, invoked, or honored within coordination.

🔠 Vital Capital Types (Initial Set)¶

MAP defines a common set of Vital Capital Types to get started. Communities are encouraged to extend this list.

Capital Type	Description
Natural Capital	Ecosystem services, land, water, air, biodiversity
Human Capital	Skills, labor, knowledge, health, attention
Social Capital	Trust, reputation, relationships, group cohesion
Cultural Capital	Stories, rituals, traditions, symbols, identity
Built Capital	Tools, infrastructure, digital systems, physical assets
Financial Capital	Currency, tokens, credit, investments
Experiential Capital	Aesthetic, emotional, and lived experiences
Memetic Capital	Values, beliefs, narrative codes, memetic signatures
Temporal Capital	Time, availability, scheduling of attention
Spiritual Capital	Purpose, presence, connection to meaning (optional but supported)

🌿 Extensible by communities — define your own: Ancestral Capital, Environmental Capital, Play Capital, Ritual Space, Silence, Emergence, etc.

🔁 Multi-Dimensional Capital Flows in MAP Agreements¶

Every Agreement in MAP is structured as a bundle of Promises made by each participating Agent, each of which can involve specific flows of Vital Capital. These Promises may reference different capital types — such as time, care, knowledge, or financial instruments — and together they define the multi-dimensional value exchange represented by the Agreement.

A Promise might say: "I will contribute 4 hours per week of mentoring (Human Capital)," or "I will share community data insights (Memetic Capital)," or even, "I will transfer 100 tokens upon completion (Financial Capital)." But it is the collection of Promises across all roles that articulates the full dimensionality of the exchange.

This is a core differentiator of MAP Agreements: instead of reducing coordination to a single monetary price, Agreements can specify many types of value flows in parallel — each explicitly described, contextualized, and governed.

Agreements may specify for each flow:

capitalType: What kind of capital is involved
direction: Incoming / outgoing (from the perspective of the Agent making the commitment)
quantity: Scalar (e.g. 10 hours), symbolic (e.g. “ongoing”), or subjective (“sufficient”)
conditions: Rules or thresholds that gate the flow
impact: Intended or observed outcomes of the flow

🔄 Patterns of Flow¶

MAP supports several flow archetypes, encoded in Agreement and Promise structures:

Pattern	Description
Gift Flow	Unconditional giving (e.g. "I will share this value freely.")
Reciprocal Flow	Mutual exchange based on parity or complementarity
Mutualism	Coordinated flows for shared benefit (e.g. co-creation of a shared resource)
Stewardship Flow	One party promises to care for or maintain value on behalf of others
Commons Contribution	Value flows into a collectively accessible pool
Conditional Flow	Value flows only if certain criteria are met (e.g. trust, role, proposal outcome)

🔧 Functional Dimensions of Vital Capitals¶

Each Vital Capital Type can optionally declare functional dimensions —
flags that trigger specific capabilities in the extensible set of services offered by your fellow Travelers.

These dimensions are used by DAHN, Agreements, Protocols, and Dashboards to dynamically offer appropriate behaviors.

Dimension	Definition	Example Values	Enables...
`quantifiable`	Can this capital be expressed using numbers or scalar amounts?	`true` / `false`	SQs, thresholds, dashboards, quantities in agreements
`transferable`	Can this capital move between agents or be reassigned?	`true` / `false`	Stewardship, offers, exchange flows
`durable`	Does it persist over time (like a stock) after being received or offered?	`true` / `false`	Stock/flow tracking, sustainability modeling
`replenishable`	Can it be restored, renewed, or regenerated after use?	`true` / `false`	Restoration flows, regenerative practice tracking
`formalizable`	Can its use or exchange be governed by structured logic or agreements?	`true` / `false`	Access constraints, thresholds, smart agreements
`tangible`	Is it materially embodied or physically instantiated?	`true` / `false`	Logistics, location specificity, inventory management
`observable`	Can others perceive or attest to its presence or expression?	`true` / `false`	Reputation, trust signals, witness attestations
`symbolic_only`	Exists purely in narrative, ritual, or symbolic space (not material or digital)	`true` / `false`	Rituals, role enactments, meaning flows
`consumable`	Is it used up or diminished through participation or sharing?	`true` / `false`	Scarcity logic, usage constraints, restoration logic
`uniquely_identifiable`	Can individual instances be tracked distinctly (e.g., books, artworks)?	`true` / `false`	Asset tracking, provenance, serialization

🧰 Example Vital Capitals Across Dimensions¶

Below is a curated set of examples showing how different Vital Capitals vary across multiple functional dimensions. These examples include edge cases that clarify what it means for something to be replenishable, formalizable, or uniquely identifiable.

Vital Capital	`quantifiable`	`transferable`	`durable`	`replenishable`	`formalizable`	`tangible`	`observable`	`symbolic_only`	`consumable`	`uniquely_identifiable`	Notes
Water	true	true	true	true	true	true	true	false	true	false	Physical, metered
Presence	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	Emergent, relational
Reputation	partial	false	true	partial	false	false	true	false	false	false	Attested, social
Love	false	false	true	true	false	false	true	true	false	false	Grows through sharing
Time	true	false	false	false	true	false	true	false	true	false	Scarce, not renewable
Labor	true	true	true	true	true	true	true	false	true	false	Formalizable service
Trust	partial	false	true	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	Built or broken relationally
Sacred Silence	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	Symbolic, emergent
Book (printed)	true	true	true	false	true	true	true	false	false	true	Tangible, trackable asset

💡 Notes on Interpretation¶

Some values (like Love or Reputation) are non-rivalrous and not depleted by sharing.
Others (like Time or Labor) are consumable and must be carefully allocated or replenished.
Formalization applies to resources that can be governed by agreements or policies (e.g., time, water, money).
Symbolic-only value types support meaning-making and ritual without requiring measurement or exchange.
The uniquely_identifiable dimension tracks whether distinct instances matter — e.g., serialized artifacts vs. bulk commodities.

⚙️ MAP Affordances Enabled by Functional Dimensions¶

The MAP Core provides a flexible scaffold for defining and coordinating Vital Capitals —
but it does not prescribe fixed behaviors for all types.

Extensions to the MAP Core (e.g. DAHNs, visualizers, smart agreements) may introduce
specific behaviors — such as dashboards, constraints, or rituals — when certain functional dimensions are present.

The table below summarizes potential affordances that can be layered on if the relevant dimensions are true:

Affordance	Requires...
Sustainability Quotients (SQ)	`measurable: true`, `persistent: true`
Threshold-Constrained Promises	`measurable: true`, `formalizable: true`
Stock Dashboards	`persistent: true`
Transfer & Stewardship Flows	`transferable: true`
Restoration Protocols	`replenishable: true`, `depletes_with_use: true`
Observer Attestations	`observable: true`
Ritual-Based Agreements	`symbolic_only: true`
---

🔗 Example Holon Declaration¶

{
  "type": "#VitalCapitalType",
  "key": "Love",
  "display_name": "Love",
  "description": "A generative, relational force that increases through sharing",
  "functional_dimensions": {
    "measurable": false,
    "transferable": false,
    "persistent": true,
    "observable": true,
    "replenishable": false,
    "formalizable": false,
    "tangible": false,
    "symbolic_only": true,
    "depletes_with_use": false
  }
}

---¶

📏 Thresholds, Sustainability Quotients, and Dashboards¶

To support meaningful regenerative coordination, the MAP integrates key ideas from Context-Based Sustainability (CBS), including:

Sustainability Thresholds: Context-specific boundaries (ecological, social, economic) that define what constitutes a sustainable state for an Agent or Agent Space.
Sustainability Quotients: Metrics that compare actual behavior to defined thresholds.
Dashboards: DAHN modules that surface these metrics to support awareness, reflection, and adaptive coordination.

🧠 An Agent Space is sustainable to the extent that its Vital Capital flows and stocks remain within the thresholds that define what it can justly and safely take, give, or impact — in context.

🔹 What Is a Threshold?¶

A Threshold defines the contextually appropriate limit for a particular Vital Capital flow or stock. Examples include:

Ecological: How much water can be used without degrading the watershed?
Social: What level of care ensures dignity and belonging?
Economic: What balances ensure resilience without extraction?

Thresholds are defined per capital type and may come from:

Governance within Agent Spaces
Commons stewardship principles
Scientific knowledge or traditional wisdom
Memetic codes embedded in LifeCodes

🔹 Sustainability Quotient (SQ)¶

The Sustainability Quotient compares actual behavior to the defined threshold:

If SQ ≤ 1 → the flow is within sustainable bounds
If SQ > 1 → the flow exceeds the sustainable threshold (overshoot)

Each Vital Capital type can have its own SQ, offering a multi-dimensional portrait of sustainability. MAP doesn't collapse this into a single score — it supports holistic, context-aware feedback.

🔹 Example: Water Use¶

Capital Type: Natural Capital (Water)
Threshold: 50L/day/person
Actual Use: 40L/day/person
Result: SQ = 0.80 → Sustainable (20% headroom)

In DAHN, this could be visualized as:

A green arc showing 80% fill
Narrative insight: “Usage within sustainable limits”
Suggestion: “Consider contributing surplus to a commons”

🔹 Capital Dashboards for Every Agent Space¶

Each Agent Space — whether individual or collective — can activate dashboards in DAHN to track:

Dimension	What It Shows
Vital Capital Flows	Inflows and outflows by type and period
Capital Stocks	What is being stored, cultivated, or depleted
Sustainability Quotients	Performance relative to thresholds
Trend Arcs	Direction and velocity of change
Alerts and Prompts	When nearing or exceeding safe limits
Regenerative Insights	Suggestions for rebalancing or restorative action

These dashboards are configurable and privacy-aware. They can be kept private for self-awareness, shared selectively with trusted peers, or integrated into governance decisions.

🧷 Conclusion: Why Vital Capital Matters¶

Most coordination systems reduce value to monetary terms, hiding the richness of what actually flows between people and across communities. The MAP elevates Vital Capital as a first-class, memetically expressive structure for meaningful exchange.

It makes visible the many forms of value that support life and relationship.
It invites regenerative action based on sufficiency, not extraction.
It enables stewardship and reciprocity within the commons.
Vital Capitals are plural, diverse, and community-defined.
They are modeled in MAP as flows between agents and Spaces — not just static resources.
Sustainability Quotients (SQs) are fully supported where appropriate, grounding coordination in CBS’s context-aware model.
Communities can define their own capital types, declare functional behaviors, and use MAP to coordinate what they value — in their own terms.

MAP doesn’t just move information or money.
It makes it possible to coordinate around what really matters — in all its dimensions.

📚 Acknowledgements¶

The MAP concept of Vital Capitals is directly inspired by the work of
Mark W. McElroy and the Center for Sustainable Innovation,
especially the framework of Context-Based Sustainability (CBS):

McElroy, M. W. (2008) Social Footprints: Measuring the Social Sustainability Performance of Organizations.
Essence of Context-Based Sustainability

MAP extends CBS with a holonic, flow-native, consent-based coordination layer —
preserving its rigor while opening to ritual, meaning, and regeneration.

The Metacurrency Project