The monetary signal: what is paid and exchanged.
Public research in progress
One economy.Two languages.
Polyvalent World is a public research site exploring price, cost and value in any transaction or decision.
It is not replacing the existing economic system. It is building upon it—adding a biophysical language beside money so that human judgement can see more of what a decision means.
The framework
Price is essential. It is not the whole story.
Price enables exchange and coordination at enormous scale. But it does not reliably describe the physical consequences of a choice. Cost makes those consequences visible. Value enters through human judgement: what matters, to whom, and over what period of time.
The biophysical signal: carbon, materials and consequences.
The human judgement: what ought to matter in this decision.
Why change is hard
The system is everywhere, but controlled nowhere.
The predominant system is difficult to change because money is embedded in contracts, accounts, budgets, laws, procurement systems, software and everyday habits.
No single household, business, government or institution controls the whole economy. Each actor responds to rules and signals shaped by everyone else.
That makes change a problem of agency as much as knowledge. Polyvalent World asks how a second useful language can be added where decisions already happen—without first having to tear the existing system down.
Agency across the economy
Change begins where people already have influence.
From idea to action
The Carbon Thermostat
One possible application is feedback that makes the carbon consequence of a transaction visible before a decision is made.
It is not a replacement for price, a tax or an offset. It is an added signal supporting better judgement at the point of choice.
Public research
A proposition to test, not a finished system to impose.
The work will develop through applied questions, criticism and collaboration across fields. Research notes, working papers and practical experiments will be added as the work develops.