Files
hermes-brain/ideas/passepartout-economics/cost-structure.org
Hermes 303e8c6306 Convert cross-references from [[id:uuid]] to [[file:name.org]]
All 117 inter-node links now use [[file:node-name.org][title]] format
which renders as clickable hyperlinks in both Emacs (C-c C-o) and
web-based org renderers (Gitea, GitHub). Each node retains its :ID:
UUID property for Emacs org-roam database features (backlinks,
capturing, node-find).

Prev format: [[id:uuid][title]] — Emacs only, dead text on web
New format:  [[file:name.org][title]] — works everywhere
2026-05-21 19:40:54 +00:00

1.0 KiB

Cost Structure — Zero Marginal Cost

  • One-time cost: gate-rule encoding for a domain (from hours for codified domains up to months for tacit domains)
  • Near-zero marginal cost: ACL2 proof + Screamer consistency check + VivaceGraph lookup per interaction — all CPU-native, all in-image
  • No recurring LLM API costs for the 80% symbolic reasoning layer
  • After sufficiency flip: pennies per day vs dollars per day for LLM-only

The cost curve inverts: generation is expensive, verification is cheap. This is the inversion Passepartout exploits.

Token demand shifts from "every interaction burns tokens" to "only unfamiliar interactions burn tokens." Steady-state per-user LLM consumption drops by an order of magnitude.

See also: Lisp economics, Gate rule encoding, Sufficiency flip