Commerce

The most powerful forces that transform our world are global standards and aligned beliefs.

Unlike animals that try to find ecosystems that support them, Humans need to transform the world to survive, this transformation requires more than just physical resources it requires integrating wisdom into platforms using systems thinking.

Platform

Knowledge comes in two main categories:

1. Science: Knowledge about the nature of the world, what exists and how it works
2. Technology: Knowledge of how to transform the physical and social aspects of our environment.

Layers of knowledge built up from experiments to explore potential to grow.

1. Embodied knowledge - Knowledge embedded in tools where you don't need to know how a tool is made to gain leverage extracting value from using it.
2. Codified knowledge - Knowledge that exists in symbolic space as codes, recipes, formulas, algorithms, and manuals
3. Knowhow - Knowledge that exists in people's heads that can't be easily explained or transferred through conversation, requiring extensive practice, growth experiments.

Agency comes from capability to leverage science (best practice protocols) and technology effectively to transform the world for a better quality of life.

Potential

Potential is realized through effectiveness of transformation of state, and driven by advancements in technology. Knowing where resources are located and how to use them is driven by knowledge.

What makes modern economies powerful is not that individuals have become smarter than historical figures like Adam Smith, but rather that we've developed systems for dividing knowledge among different people and then recombining it when needed.

This engineering of knowledge allows societies to access much collective wisdom than any single being can possess.