AIM Framework glossary
Bidirectional Demand
Canonical definition
Bidirectional Demand is the threshold requirement for any exchange of Objects between two Individuals-as-Objects: both parties must generate sufficient valuation of the other to exceed their respective action-readiness thresholds for Objects to flow. The requirement is trivially satisfied in most market transactions (both buyer and seller value the exchange above threshold) but becomes analytically significant when PM is present. PM contamination alters which transactions clear the threshold and which do not. An Individual with high Status-PM clears others' action-readiness thresholds more easily (because others' PM-inflated valuations are elevated), while a low-Status-PM Individual may fail to clear the threshold at all, even when their A-I contribution is objectively adequate. At the population level, PM-concentration at the apex governs not only the terms within transactions but also which transactions occur at all, producing a distribution of economic opportunity that tracks Status-PM rather than A-I contribution.
Explanation
For any deal to happen, both sides need to want it enough to act. Usually this is obvious: you want the bread, the baker wants your money. But when Status enters the picture, high-Status people get more offers (everyone wants to deal with them) while low-Status people get fewer offers (even if they are perfectly competent). The employer who picks the prestigious but less qualified candidate over the skilled but unknown one is exhibiting this: the prestigious candidate's PM cleared the employer's "worth dealing with" threshold by a wider margin, and the employer confabulates the preference as "better cultural fit." See Object Transfer Principle, Individual-as-Object Principle, Confabulation, Action-Readiness Threshold, Source Opacity. Substrate specification. Bidirectional Demand operates through the A-component, I-component, and PM-component of each party’s valuation of the other (per the Object Transfer Principle). The A and I components produce reciprocal functional contribution (which is normal and self-limiting); only the PM-differential produces extraction. The Bidirectional Demand framework is therefore not symmetrical in extractive consequence: bidirectional A-flow and bidirectional I-flow are non-pathological, while bidirectional PM-flow produces the net-extraction dynamics formalised in the Net Mimetic Position construct.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.