AIM Framework glossary
Crisis State Variables
Canonical definition
The Crisis State Variables are four quantities measurable in a population, each the population-scale trace of a derived result, from which the population's position among the phases of the Crisis State Architecture is read: (1) Status Integrity, the share of what predicts an Individual's position in a field that is carried by the two Referent-backed components of Status, Status-A and Status-I, against the Mimetic component, Status-PM; (2) Price Inflation Ratio, the ratio of the Mimetic Premium (PM) in the prices of essential goods to the Appetitive and Intrinsic components of the same prices; (3) Exit Capacity, the degree to which Individuals can refuse the markets and arenas that carry the Mimetic Premium without falling below the A-Floor or losing access to their I-domains; and (4) Concealment Density, the degree to which the Mimetic Hypothesis is unavailable to a population's Individuals at the point where a want or a price is resolved, whether absent from the Hypothesis Space or held and not applied. None of the four has dynamics of its own: each measures a quantity whose dynamics the architecture fixes, and where the boundaries between phases lie in the four is a matter of measurement.
Explanation
Each variable is something that can be measured in a population, and each is the visible trace of something the architecture already derives. Status Integrity asks whether people rise in a field by what they contribute or by the standing they already hold; at one half the two predict rank equally, which is the Calcification Threshold. Price Inflation Ratio asks how much of what people pay for essentials is Mimetic Premium. Exit Capacity asks whether someone who sees the Premium can refuse to pay the Premium without losing shelter, food or the work that absorbs them. Concealment Density asks whether people can form, or apply, the thought that a want or a price might be Mimetic. The four move together: when extraction is rewarded with standing, Status Integrity falls and the Premium grows; a Premium in essentials closes exits; the complexity that hides a large Premium raises Concealment Density; and Concealment Density hides the fall in Status Integrity. See Crisis State Architecture, Concealment Infrastructure, Opt-Out Preservation.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.