{
  "handle": "ShapeMassInformation",
  "gloss": "Risk in organisation growth is the balance of three trading-off ingredients: control of shape, addition of mass and growth of information",
  "mechanism": "Any organisation that grows, whether a cell, an organism, a company, a project or a model, manages risk by mixing three ingredients: {{shape_control}} (keeping a desired form), {{mass_addition}} (investing in the information it holds) and {{information_growth}} (taking in information valued for itself). They trade off. Adding mass to a fixed shape amplifies that shape's error, so keeping control of shape as mass grows requires adding corrective information. Pursuing mass or information for their own value deforms or abandons shape. A strategy is a characteristic mixture and rate of the three: a decision freezes shape and then adds mass; a delivery drone adds mass slowly while correcting shape; a fighter pilot or an immune system grows information and changes shape to exploit it. Decision-making is therefore one kind of organisation growth, not the basic unit of risk.",
  "invariants": [
    "All three ingredients are present in any organisation growth, in some proportion",
    "Adding {{mass_addition}} without adding information makes {{shape_control}} harder in proportion to the mass added",
    "Pursuing {{information_growth}} or {{mass_addition}} for its own value reduces control of shape",
    "No single ingredient is the measure of risk; risk lies in the balance between them"
  ],
  "failure_modes": [
    "Treating risk as the control of shape alone and so missing failures to add enough mass or to integrate new information",
    "Seeing the three as independent objectives to hit, rather than as forces that interact",
    "Assuming every situation reduces to gathering information up front and then committing to a decision"
  ],
  "_meta": {
    "path": [
      "Mind",
      "Strategy"
    ],
    "ring": 2,
    "tier": 2,
    "source": "Adam Timlett, On the Origin of Risk (2025), Introduction p.14, Ch 2 p.38, Ch 3"
  },
  "sema_id": "sema:ShapeMassInformation#mh:SHA-256:cc79283f222d0fa3398ad741d5e4f96363103dc191d538a28d6e7a5ee4f6a16b",
  "sema_ref": "ShapeMassInformation#cc79",
  "sema_stub": "cc79",
  "dependencies": {
    "references": {
      "information_growth": "sema:InformationGrowth#mh:SHA-256:9a86182b8561d0eada5a28b0ceb30fa00500e725d050f760805b8f0da37125de",
      "mass_addition": "sema:MassAddition#mh:SHA-256:c51d977414e13d47f38e9ddab62fccb6d88d5f9f4514264fe389414515c16b0a",
      "shape_control": "sema:ShapeControl#mh:SHA-256:185f506a48d483fc549fb77ece35dc1f3c54180a0c31657960a2fa6daf155a2d"
    }
  },
  "sema_layer": "Mind",
  "sema_category": "Strategy",
  "used_by": {}
}