whitepapers.xyz

A Memphis Archive of Research

Technology Economics Society
WP-001 | Technology

On the Impossibility of Perfect Search

Any search algorithm operating over a sufficiently complex information space must trade precision for recall. This paper formalizes the impossibility of simultaneously maximizing both, and proposes a framework for deliberate trade-off selection.

complexity theory, information retrieval
WP-002 | Economics

Transaction Costs in Digital Marketplaces

Digital platforms were expected to reduce transaction costs to near zero. This paper demonstrates that they instead transformed transaction costs from monetary to attentional, creating a new economic category.

digital economics, attention economy
WP-003 | Society

The Governance of Shared Fictions

Nations, corporations, and currencies are shared fictions -- stories enough people believe to make them functional. This paper examines how these fictions are governed, contested, and replaced.

political theory, social construction
WP-004 | Technology

Latency as a Design Material

Network latency is typically treated as a problem. This paper reconceptualizes it as a design material -- a temporal dimension that can be shaped, exploited, and aestheticized in distributed systems.

systems design, HCI
WP-005 | Economics

The Value of Nothing

Zero-cost digital goods have nonzero value. This paper develops a valuation framework for goods with zero marginal cost, arguing that value in the digital age is determined by attention, not scarcity.

digital economics, valuation