Phase 1 — Machine Cards
Browse all 182 cards
182 hand-curated Machine Cards spanning the Modernity, Divergence, and Liveness world-machine eras. Each card describes a class of civilizational machine with its operational substrate, phase trajectory, state variables, and cross-era couplings.
MM
InfoSubstrate Scribal (pre-1450)culture800–1450Manorial System (Carolingian)infrastructure800–1700Three-Field Crop Rotation (Carolingian Agrarian)nature800–1700Norman Cadastral System (Domesday Book class, 1086)governance1086University (Medieval, Bologna 1088)culture1088–1810Medieval European Guilds (c.1100–1835)commerce1100–1835Hanseatic League (Hansa), 1356–1669commerce1241–1669Bills of Exchange (Lettera di Cambio)commerce1300Military-Mercantile (Condottiere / Mercenary Captain, ~1300–1650)governance1300–1650Silk and Spice Route (Eastward Circuit, ca. 1500)commerce1300–1700Italian City-State Banking / Medici Bank (1397–1494)commerce1397–1494Holy Roman Empire (Habsburg Dynasty, 1438–1806)governance1438–1806InfoSubstrate Print (Gutenberg 1450)culture1450–1830Spanish Inquisition (Tribunal del Santo Oficio, 1478–1834)governance1478–1834Spanish Empire (1492–1898)governance1492–1898Double-Entry Bookkeeping (Pacioli 1494)commerce1494Treaty of Tordesillas (1494 — Iberian global territorial partition)governance1494–1750Mercantilist Trade Policy (state-strategic trade regulation, 1500–1800)governance1500–1846Lutheran Reformation (1517)culture1517Calvinist Geneva (Reformed-Protestant doctrine, 1541)culture1541Roman Catholic Church (Tridentine, 1545–present)culture1545Dutch Republic (Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden)governance1581–1795Amsterdam Bourse (1602) — World's First Formal Stock Exchangecommerce1602–1795Central Bank / Monetary Authority (Merchant form, 1609)commerce1609–1844Baconian Scientific Method (1620)culture1620Religious Society of Friends (Quakers, 1648)culture1648Westphalian Nation-State (sovereign-state system, 1648)governance1648Royal Mail (General Post Office, 1660–present)infrastructure1660Royal Navy (British, 1660–present)governance1660Royal Society of London (1660)culture1662Académie des sciences (French Academy of Sciences, 1666)governance1666Newtonian Mechanics (1687)culture1687Linnaean Taxonomy (1735)culture1735Linnean Society of London (1788)culture1788Ottoman Tanzimat (1839–1876)governance1839–1876Qing/Republican Modernization (1861–1949)governance1861–1949Meiji Japanese State (1868–1912)governance1868–1912Venice as Maritime-Trade Republic (1500)commerce1000–1797East India Company (1600–1858)commerce1600–1858Amsterdam as Global-City Hub (1650)commerce1602–1750Joint-Stock Company (Mercantile form, 1602)commerce1602–1850Military Standing Army (Louis XIV form, 1660)governance1660–1793Methodist / Wesleyan Revivalist Movement (1738)culture1738Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768)culture1768US Postal Service (1775)infrastructure1775Manchester Cotton Mill Complex (1780–1960)infrastructure1780–1960US Constitutional Convention / US Constitution (1787)governance1787French Revolutionary State (1789–1799)governance1789–1799Industrial-Era Patent System (1790)governance1790NYSE Market-Maker (Specialist System, 1792)commerce1792Military Conscript Army (Levée en masse form, 1793)governance1793Code Napoléon (Codified Civil Law, 1804)governance1804Post-Humboldtian Research University (1810)infrastructure1810Krupp Armaments (Friedrich Krupp AG / ThyssenKrupp, 1811)commerce1811British Empire State Machine (1815–1914)governance1815–1914Congress of Vienna (Concert of Europe, 1815)governance1815–1914Owenite Cooperative Movement (1825–1855)culture1825–1855InfoSubstrate Newspaper-Broadcast (1830)culture1830–1995Royal Geographical Society (1830)culture1830Statistical Public Health Machine (Farr / GRO, 1839)governance1839Freshwater Sanitation (Municipal, 1840s–ongoing)infrastructure1842Central Bank / Monetary Authority (BoE Gold-Standard form, 1844)governance1844–1971Smithsonian Institution (1846)governance1846Wire Service Journalism: AP / Reuters (1846)culture1846Municipal Public Health Act 1848 (UK Legislative-Framework Machine)governance1848Indian Colonial Railway State (1853–1947)infrastructure1853–1947Vaccination Act 1853 (Compulsory Smallpox Vaccination Machine)governance1853Sewers — Bazalgette London Main Drainage (1859–ongoing)infrastructure1859US Railway Land Grants (Pacific Railway Acts, 1862–1872)infrastructure1862–1872German Chemical Industry (BASF/Bayer/Hoechst, 1865)commerce1865Mendeleev Periodic Table (Periodic Law, 1869)culture1869Suez Canal (1869–ongoing)infrastructure1869Gold Standard System (1870)commerce1870–1914Standard Oil Company (Trust form, 1870–1911)commerce1870–1911German Imperial Nation-State (Wilhelmine, 1871)governance1871–1918Bell System / AT&T (1876–1984)infrastructure1876–1984Japanese Zaibatsu (1880–1945)commerce1880National Electrical Grid (Insull / US Grid, 1882–ongoing)infrastructure1882Bismarckian Welfare Apparatus (1883)governance1883Sears, Roebuck & Co. Mail-Order Complex (1886)commerce1886–2018Urban Streetcar Systems (US, 1888–1950s)infrastructure1888Trans-Siberian Railway (1891–1916 / ongoing)infrastructure1891Ford Motor System (Fordism, 1908–1980)infrastructure1908–1980Federal Reserve System (1913)governance1913Income Tax / 16th Amendment (1913)governance1913Underwood-Simmons Tariff Act (Revenue Act of 1913)governance1913Panama Canal (1914–ongoing)infrastructure1914General Motors (Sloan M-form Organization, 1920–present)commerce1920Soviet State Planning Committee (Gosplan, 1921)governance1921–1991Broadcast Media: BBC / RCA (1922)culture1922National Gas Pipeline Network (US, 1920s–ongoing)infrastructure1929USSR Military-Industrial Complex (VPK / Soviet MIC, 1930)governance1930US New Deal Administrative State (1933)governance1933US Interstate-Era Trucking (1935–ongoing)infrastructure1935Bretton Woods System (1944)governance1944–1971World Bank / IMF Complex (1944)governance1944Container Shipping / Sea-Land Service (1956)infrastructure1956US Interstate Highway System (1956–ongoing)infrastructure1956Electronics Assembly System (1966)commerce1966Second International (International Workingmen's Association II, 1889–1914)governance1889–1914Pan American Union (1890 – present; OAS successor)governance1890Modernity Machine
101 cardsDM
Wikipedia (2001)culture2001BRICS Informal Coordination (class, 2009–ongoing)governance2009Joint-Stock Company (Industrial form, 1850)commerce1850Visa / Mastercard Payment Rails (Card-Network Class, 1958)infrastructure1958Walmart Logistics Complex (1962)commerce1962Central Bank / Monetary Authority (Fiat form, post-Nixon 1971)governance1971SWIFT Interbank Messaging Network (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, 1973)infrastructure1973BlackRock + Vanguard + State Street (Big-Three Passive Asset Managers)commerce1976Joint-Stock Company (Platform form, 1980)commerce1980Apple Device-Services Complex (1984)commerce1984ICANN / IETF / W3C Internet Governance (class, 1986–ongoing)infrastructure1986TSMC Advanced Semiconductor Foundry (1987)infrastructure1987Foxconn Global Assembly Platform (1988)infrastructure1988IPCC Climate Science Machine (1988)governance1988arXiv Preprint Infrastructure (1991)infrastructure1991Linux / Open-Source Ecosystem (1991)infrastructure1991Amazon Commerce Platform (1994)commerce1995Climate COP Coordination System (1995–ongoing)governance1995InfoSubstrate Social Platform (1995)culture1995Google Search Advertising (1998)commerce1998Tencent Superapp Platform (1998)commerce1998Alibaba Commerce Ecosystem (1999)commerce1999JPMorgan Chase & Co. (G-SIB / Fortress Balance Sheet class)commerce2000Military Drone-and-Cyber (DM-Day form, ~2000)governance2000SMIC China Semiconductor Foundry (2000)infrastructure2000Meta Platforms (Social-Media Platform, 2004)commerce2004YouTube Video Platform (2005)culture2005AWS Cloud Infrastructure (Amazon Web Services, 2006)infrastructure2006X / Twitter Public Discourse Platform (2006)culture2006Airbnb Peer Marketplace (2008)commerce2008Federal Reserve (QE-Era Operations, 2008)governance2008GitHub Code-Collaboration Platform (2008)infrastructure2008Stack Overflow Developer Knowledge Platform (2008)culture2008Uber Rideshare / Gig Platform (2009)commerce2009Cloudflare Internet Middleware (2010)infrastructure2010Microsoft Azure Cloud (2010)infrastructure2010ByteDance / TikTok Algorithm (2012)culture2012Belt and Road Infrastructure Initiative (BRI, 一带一路, 2013)infrastructure2013Google DeepMind AI Lab (2014)infrastructure2014Stablecoin Issuer (Digital Dollar Peg Class)commerce2014OpenAI Foundation Model Lab (2015)infrastructure2015EU GDPR Regulatory Apparatus (2018–ongoing)governance2018ASML EUV Lithography Monopoly (2019)infrastructure2019mRNA Vaccine Platform Consortium (Pfizer-BioNTech + Moderna, 2020)infrastructure2020Chinese AI Labs Collective (2023)infrastructure2023Divergence Machine
45 cardsLM
Seed-Saving Network (LM-Dawn class)nature1975Community Land Trust (class)commerce1984Gleaning Collective (LM-Dawn class)commerce1986Bioregional Permaculture Collective (class)nature1993Capture-Resistance Index Coordination (LM-Dawn class)governance1995Open-Source Software Ecosystem (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2000Rewilding Project Network (class)nature2000Proletarianization-Reversal Collective (LM-Dawn class)culture2001Open-Hardware Fabrication Collective (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2005Post-Credentialism Network (LM-Dawn class)culture2009Repair Café / Tool-Library / Right-to-Repair Network (LM-Dawn class)culture2009Liveness Temporal Coupling Collective (LM-Dawn class)culture2010Slow-Knowledge School (LM-Dawn class)culture2011Public-Interest Tech Collective (LM-Dawn class)governance2012Water Stewardship / Watershed Collective (LM-Dawn class)nature2012Cooperative Platform (LM-Dawn class)commerce2013Decentralized Science Platform (LM-Dawn class)culture2013Capture-Resistance Protocol (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2014Degrowth Municipalism (LM-Dawn class)governance2015Pluralism-Substrate Coordination (LM-Dawn class)governance2015Argument-of-Progress Collective (LM-Dawn class)governance2016Argument-of-Progress Public / Ritual (LM-Dawn class)governance2016Decentralized Identity Protocol (class, 2016–ongoing)infrastructure2016Fediverse Protocol Collective (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2016Peer-to-Peer Energy Grid (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2016Real-Autonomy Flow (LM-Dawn class)culture2018Rewilding Fraction State-Monitor (class, 2011–ongoing)nature2019Bioregional Rewilding Initiative (2020)nature2020Mutual-Aid Network at Scale (LM-Dawn class)culture2020Permacomputing Collective (LM-Dawn class)culture2020Self-Organized Criticality Flow (LM-Dawn class)infrastructure2020Ontological Doubt Infrastructure (class, 2018–ongoing)infrastructure2021Capture-Resistant AI Infrastructure (LM-Dawn class, 2020–present)infrastructure2022Civic Credential Protocol (LM-Dawn class)governance2022LLM Inference Platform (class, 2022–present)commerce2022LLM Public-Good Cooperative (LM-Dawn class, 2022–present)infrastructure2022