the framework

Displacement

the whole thing, one page. everything else is application.

Objects

$S^0$: ground state. the configuration a system rests in at least cost.
$\xi = \rho(s, S^0)$: displacement. the distance from ground, right now.
$D(\xi)$: cost. what sitting at displacement $\xi$ costs each moment.
$\Phi = \int_0^T D(\xi)\,dt$: accumulation. the cost of a whole path.
$\delta$: net displacement. where you ended minus where you started.
$G = \Phi - k|\delta|$: the glitch. cost paid beyond net work done. $k$ is the fair-exchange constant.

Axioms

ground exists. $D(0) \le D(\xi)$. living: $D(0)=\theta>0$, a body pays just to stay alive.
non-negativity. $D(\xi) \ge 0$.
monotonicity. $D$ non-decreasing in $\xi$. farther costs more.
path dependence. $\Phi$ depends on the path, not the endpoints.
irreversibility. a broken return costs more than the departure: $\Phi_{\text{return}} > \Phi_{\text{departure}}$.
loop cost. any loop that leaves ground pays: $\oint D\,dt > 0$.
fairness. a fair price tracks work $\Phi_T$, not severity $\xi$. price on $\xi$ and you mint the glitch, $G_{\text{econ}} > 0$.
volume. earn on the volume of real return, $\Pi = m \cdot n \cdot \bar\Phi$, not on the depth of displacement.
threshold. each system has a critical $\xi_c$ past which a wrong attractor self-reinforces. period and amplitude are individual.

Results

Wrong attractor. a stable $W \neq S^0$. suffering is capture in it: a basin that costs $\Phi$ and is not where you were going.

Maintenance. hold a system near ground at the optimal cadence $\tau^* = \left(\dfrac{3f}{a\,\delta^2}\right)^{1/3}$. sooner wastes work; later lets the drift entrench.

Invariance, a priori. at a fold, $U = \tfrac14 x^4 - \tfrac12 a x^2 - b x$, the exponent vector $(\tau,\,dU,\,A,\,x_h{-}x_s) = (-\tfrac12,\,\tfrac32,\,1,\,\tfrac12)$ is the only domain-free content. critical slowing $\tau \sim \mu^{-1/2}$. the same exponents from a mind to a market to spacetime. the constants carry the domain; the exponents do not. invariance is real as scaling, not as numbers.

Name the ground.
Measure the drift.
Pay the honest price of the return.