AIM Framework glossary
Exit Capacity
Canonical definition
Exit Capacity is the third Crisis State Variable, measuring the degree to which Individuals can withdraw from M-intensive participation, status competitions, inflated markets, polarised identity groups, and the observation of a Reference Set for an interval long enough for the Reference Set's priors to release, without forfeiting access to A-sufficiency (food, shelter, healthcare, basic income) or I-opportunity (education, creative practice, meaningful work), such that high Exit Capacity indicates robust opt-out pathways and low Exit Capacity indicates structural lock-in where M-awareness alone cannot produce behavioural change. Exit Capacity measures how far the Opt-Out Paradox has run, and at the worst-off margin low Exit Capacity closes both routes: an Individual who exits falls below the A-Floor, and one who stays pays the Mimetic Premium out of the provision the A-Floor protects.
Explanation
Exit Capacity is the structural prerequisite for the Knowledge Patch to translate into behaviour change. An Individual who recognises that a \$1.2 million house carries \$900,000 of Mimetic Premium cannot act on that recognition if every house in commuting distance of their employment costs \$1 million or more and renting provides no A-secure alternative. Recognition without exit produces informed helplessness, which adds the psychic cost of awareness to the material cost of lock-in. Institutional design must therefore provide opt-out pathways alongside Knowledge Patch distribution, or the patch diagnoses a condition it cannot treat. See Crisis State Variables, Opt-Out Preservation, Knowledge Patch.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.