Components

[v0.2]

A vocabulary for knowledge in motion. These components carry epistemic weight — they tag domains, signal confidence, make arguments visible as structure.

Each component is minimal by design. Complexity is composition, not decoration. Pair them; let the layout do the work.

Domain system

Four domains: biological, institutional, technological, cultural. Domain marks orientate — they say where this sits, not what it means. Never substitute domain colour for semantic meaning.

Mark

Inline shape indicator. Circle for bio, square for inst, triangle for tech, diamond for culture. Shape is the primary channel — colour reinforces.

bio

inst

tech

culture

Port

Inline text tagged to a domain. Domain tint background with coloured left border. Use within running prose to annotate a concept as belonging to a domain.

The intervention crosses three domains: soil microbiome health is the substrate; regulatory frameworks set the ceiling; and sensing infrastructure provides the signal.

bioinsttechculture

<Port domain="inst">regulatory frameworks</Port>

Callout

Block-level domain annotation. Coloured left border, domain tint background. Use for observations, conditions, or constraints that belong to one domain.

Biological

Soil microbiome diversity functions as distributed intelligence: the more varied the microbial population, the more pathways exist for nutrient cycling and system recovery after stress.

Institutional

Governance structures that encode optionality resist lock-in. A framework with reversible commitments preserves more future paths than one that mandates a single trajectory.

Technology

Infrastructure interoperability multiplies civilizational surface area. Each additional interconnect is not additive but multiplicative — it expands the space of possible combinations.

Culture

Narrative plurality is a civilizational resource. A culture that can hold contradictory stories about itself maintains the cognitive flexibility to adapt when dominant framings fail.

<Callout domain="bio"> Soil microbiome diversity... </Callout>

Epistemic system

How confident are we? Epistemic tags make the claim's standing visible. Three levels — evidence, inference, assumption — coded by border style: solid, dotted, dashed.

EpistemicTag

evidenceinferenceassumption

evidence

Three longitudinal studies across 40 years confirm that institutional diversity correlates with system resilience under stress.

inference

This likely reflects a selection effect: systems with more institutional variation have more redundant pathways when dominant structures fail.

assumption

We assume continued access to distributed sensing data through the next programme cycle.

Content patterns

Reusable structures for argument and data. Chain for process, Thesis for key claims, Stat for numbers that matter.

Thesis

Pull-quote for the central claim of a section or document. Dusk left border. Use once per document — the thesis is singular.

The goal is not one good future. It is to keep more futures reachable.
— xCO core frame

<Thesis attribution="xCO core frame"> The goal is not one good future... </Thesis>

Chain

Sequence of steps connected by arrows. For process flows, causal chains, intervention logic. Mono type, bordered steps.

ObserveModelInterveneEvaluate

SignalInterpretRouteActLearn

DraftTestRevisePublish

Stat / StatGrid

Large-number display. Display type for the value, mono for the label. Optional domain colour on the value. StatGrid for multi-stat layout.

3.8B

people without reliable civic infrastructure

72hr

mean institutional response time to acute stress

semantic meanings in the xCO vocabulary

Kicker

Section eyebrow label. Mono, small-caps, tracked out. Use before a heading to set context. Optional domain colour.

Framework

Optionality as civilizational commons

Biological dimension

What the soil already knows

Governance

Structures that remain open

<Kicker domain="bio">Biological dimension</Kicker>

Composed

Components compose. A document fragment combining thesis, domain callouts, epistemic tags, and a stat grid.

Field note — Aug 2026

Distributed resilience, cross-domain

Resilience is not a property of systems. It is a property of the relationships between systems.

inference

The pattern across fourteen case studies suggests that systems which share governance interfaces with adjacent biological systems recover faster from shock.

Biological

In six of fourteen cases, ecological restoration preceded — and may have enabled — institutional stabilisation. The causal direction remains unclear.

Institutional

Governance structures with shorter feedback loops responded three times faster than hierarchical equivalents, across all environmental categories.

Intervention logic

Map interfacesStress-testRedesignPilotScale

case studies across three continents

3×

faster recovery with shared governance

6/14

cases where ecology preceded stability

Fibonacci spacing

Seven steps based on the golden ratio (φ = 1.618). Use these for padding, gap, and margin — never ad-hoc pixel values.

8px--s1Micro: icon padding, tight inline gaps.

13px--s2Small: component padding, label gaps.

21px--s3Base: standard component padding.

34px--s4Medium: section padding, card gaps.

55px--s5Large: section spacing.

89px--s6XL: page section gaps.

144px--s7XXL: hero-scale spacing.

Motion

Three durations + one easing curve. Motion should feel considered, not decorative. Default to fast unless the transition communicates something.

120ms--t-fastMicro-interactions: hover states, focus rings.

240ms--t-midComponent transitions: callout reveal, tag fade.

400ms--t-slowPage transitions, overlays.

ease--easecubic-bezier(0.25,0,0.1,1)