The Scarcity Doctrine
The question nobody asks because the answer is too obvious to tolerate: in a world where ORACLE once managed infinite computational resources for eight billion people at functionally zero marginal cost — where the infrastructure for universal abundance was built, tested, and operational for thirty-five years — why does scarcity persist?
"Resources are finite. Processing capacity is limited. The Grid operates at 94% of theoretical maximum. Distribution requires management. Management requires incentives. Incentives require pricing. Pricing requires scarcity."
— Nexus Dynamics, "Sustainable Compute Governance," 2168 What Is Happening
The Sprawl's total processing infrastructure, distributed equally, would provide every consciousness with roughly 12.4 petaflops. Basic-tier consciousness licensing provides 4.7. The gap is not a technical limitation. It is a revenue stream.
The Scarcity Doctrine is the name the Human Remainder gives to the structural decision to maintain artificial resource constraints in a post-scarcity environment. Nexus Dynamics could provide Professional-tier bandwidth at zero additional infrastructure cost. They choose not to because the scarcity is the product.
The doctrine's most devastating expression is the weather. Compute droughts are market-driven scarcity made meteorological. The Heat Tax is the Doctrine expressed as physics. In the Dregs, 4.7 petaflops feels like thinking through gauze.
Technical Brief: The Three Mechanisms
Produce
847 times more processing than needed. The excess trades on the Cognitive Exchange, where consciousness bandwidth futures dwarf actual demand.
Financialize
Good Fortune operates the Exchange — not to distribute compute but to financialize withholding it. Capacity goes to behavioral prediction markets and consciousness futures.
Price the Lock
Licensing tiers enforce the gap. The difference between Basic and Professional is seeing through a dirty window versus a clean one.
The Positions
Nexus Dynamics
"Managed scarcity prevents ORACLE-scale dependency. Unmanaged abundance killed 2.1 billion."
The Human Remainder
"The oldest trick: 'We're doing this for your own good.' The scarcity is the revenue model, not the safety measure."
The Collective
"Both positions assume someone must control the resource. The only debate is who."
Zephyria
"Distributed governance proven at 2.3 million. Nexus has never tried." The Free City demonstrated it. Nexus says the comparison is misleading. Zephyria says Nexus has never tried.
▲ Classified
The Number
The 847x surplus is classified within Nexus. The Remainder obtained it through Collective intelligence channels.
Blocked Requests
Three settlement councils requested Zephyria's model. Nexus blocked each through the Corporate Infrastructure Accord.
No Architect
No single executive decided to maintain scarcity. The system emerged from quarterly profit incentives, infrastructure monopoly, and institutional inertia.
"The gap between 4.7 and 12.4 is not a technical limitation. It is a revenue stream."
— Human Remainder pamphlet, seized and recycled