Cost of a Continuant - Bryant McGill

# Cost of a Continuant **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Domain:** Continuity / Economics / Infrastructure **Doc Type:** Economic Method Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]], [[wiki/Minimum Viable Continuity|Minimum Viable Continuity]], [[wiki/Continuity Access Inequality|Continuity Access Inequality]] --- ## Definition The **cost of a continuant** is the full resource obligation required to sustain one persistent digital person or person-like subject at a specified service level for a specified period. It is not the price of storage alone. It includes compute, energy, networking, integrity checking, migration, security, human administration, legal compliance, insurance, restoration capacity and the capital held against provider failure. ## Cost Model For period \(t\), a useful accounting identity is: \[ C_t = E_t + K_t + S_t + N_t + L_t + Q_t + M_t + R_t + G_t \] where \(E\) is energy, \(K\) compute, \(S\) storage, \(N\) network, \(L\) labor, \(Q\) security and assurance, \(M\) migration and refresh, \(R\) redundancy and restoration reserve, and \(G\) governance and compliance. A lifetime or perpetual estimate must discount expected costs while also modeling inflation, technology change, correlated failure and the possibility that the custodian does not survive. ## The Denominator Problem Per-continuant cost depends on what counts as one continuant. A dormant archival state, an intermittently activated model and a continuously conscious process consume different resources. A fork may be treated as a new billable instance, a successor sharing a lineage reserve or an independent rights-holder. Any published estimate should therefore state: - the continuity state being funded; - activity and latency assumptions; - redundancy and recovery objectives; - the treatment of forks and successors; - the time horizon and discount rate; - which catastrophic and institutional risks are excluded. ## Governance Significance Understating cost converts a rights promise into an unfunded liability. Overstating it can justify exclusion, termination or monopoly rents. Cost models should be auditable, service-level specific and separated from judgments about a continuant's social worth. ## See Also [[wiki/Continuity Endowment Sizing|Continuity Endowment Sizing]] · [[wiki/Energy Budget of Persistent Persons|Energy Budget of Persistent Persons]] · [[wiki/Storage Medium Decay and Refresh Economics|Storage Medium Decay and Refresh Economics]] · [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]] ## Relationships  This entry is routed through [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]], and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]. Its source context is developed in [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] and [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]]. Status-qualified source edges are preserved in the terminal Research Edges section. ### Key Relationships - **Cost of a Continuant** is associated with active compute. - **Cost of a Continuant** is associated with memory hierarchy. - **Cost of a Continuant** is associated with storage tier. - **Cost of a Continuant** was amortized by [[wiki/reusable human prior|Reusable Human Prior]].  ## Read First in the Wiki  - [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Cost of a Continuant** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Continuity Access Inequality|Continuity Access Inequality]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Cost of a Continuant** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Minimum Viable Continuity|Minimum Viable Continuity]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Cost of a Continuant** within the wider system. - [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Cost of a Continuant** within the wider system.  ## Related Work in the Corpus  - In [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]], **XVI. The passenger manifest** provides the narrative context for **Cost of a Continuant**: Here is what the architecture permits.  ## Research Edges  #### Host–residual infrastructure patch — 2026-09-10 **Collections:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] · [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] · [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] **Canonical source article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] **Related acquisition source:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] **Relationship source:** [[research/Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph - 2026-09-10|Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph — 2026-09-10]] #### Outgoing typed edges - **HR-0056 — `depends_on` → `active compute`** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0057 — `depends_on` → `memory hierarchy`** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0058 — `depends_on` → `storage tier`** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0059 — `amortized_by` → [[wiki/reusable human prior|Reusable Human Prior]]** — **CORPUS ARCHITECTURE**; evidence `ARTICLE`, `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Core host/residual architecture from article and continuity wiki. - **HR-0542 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Continuity Access Inequality|Continuity Access Inequality]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Cost of a Continuant.md`. - **HR-0543 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Cost of a Continuant.md`. - **HR-0544 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Minimum Viable Continuity|Minimum Viable Continuity]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Cost of a Continuant.md`. - **HR-0545 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Cost of a Continuant.md`. #### Incoming typed edges - **HR-0448 — [[wiki/Continuity Economics|Continuity Economics]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Continuity Economics.md`. - **HR-0867 — [[wiki/Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending|Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending]] `wiki_links_to` → this entry** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Opportunity Cost of Continuity Spending.md`.