AIM Framework glossary
Build-Up Time Decomposition
Canonical definition
The decomposition of the time required for a society to accumulate cumulative PM sufficient to cross the supercriticality threshold into four factors: per-transaction PM magnitude (the mean M-fraction of the integrated valuation in typical exchanges); transaction frequency in the population (the number of M-relevant exchanges per unit time across the population); half-life of A-I-Buffer absorption capacity (the rate at which A-Floor and I-infrastructure can absorb cumulative PM extraction before A-sufficiency or I-access begins to fail); and active Subcriticality Maintenance (any institutional reduction in the PM integration rate through the four M-management dimensions). The build-up time is the integral of cumulative PM over time, not the rate of per-transaction PM at any moment. Trajectory deflection operates by reducing the second, third, and fourth factors; per-transaction PM cannot easily be reduced because Source Opacity is architectural.
Explanation
Civilisations do not collapse because PM extraction is large in any one transaction. They collapse because small extractions repeat across vast numbers of transactions and slowly add up. How fast they add up depends on four things: how big each extraction is on average, how many extractions happen per unit time, how much A-I Buffer the society has to absorb the extraction before something breaks, and how hard the society is actively working to slow the accumulation. You cannot easily change the size of each extraction because it is built into how the brain integrates motivation. You can change the other three.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.