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HOURS EOH Framework

HOURS is a mathematical framework for a currency system — Entropy Obligation Hours (EOH) → Time-Equivalent Hours (TEH) — that remains coherent, physically grounded, and fiscally solvent across the full civilizational transition from subsistence to post-scarcity.

"An economy is the organized effort of a civilization to resist entropy — in its people, in its infrastructure, in its ecosystems, and in its knowledge."

What This Is

A civilization can be described by a single observable: ε (epsilon) — the fraction of entropy obligations fulfilled by machines rather than human bodies.

ε State What it means
0.00 Subsistence All entropy resistance is human labor. TEH barely circulates.
0.40 Transition midpoint Automation handles ~40% of EOH. The primary design reference.
0.90 High automation Prices collapse toward raw material costs. Care labor dominates.
0.99 Effective post-scarcity Automation handles nearly all EOH. Human labor near-zero.

ε is not a policy lever. It is an observed state of the world — measured from capital stock and machine capacity. Every function in this framework must produce physically meaningful output across the full arc from ε = 0 to ε = 0.99.

Four Entropy Domains

The economy organizes resistance to entropy across four physical domains:

  • Personal

    Biological needs: food, shelter, healthcare, sanitation. Scales with population and age structure.

  • Infrastructure

    Buildings, roads, power grids, water systems, communications. Grows with automation-embodied capital.

  • Ecological

    Soil fertility, water cycles, pollination, fisheries, climate stability. Co-equal Trust obligation.

  • Knowledge

    Skills, institutional memory, standards, software, training. Accelerates at high ε as complexity compounds.

The EOH → TEH Pipeline

Physical state → total_eoh()            # entropy obligation from physics
              → human_eoh_per_domain()  # ε drives the machine/human split
              → registration boundary   # EOH admitted to the collective ledger
              → × worker multiplier     # TEH enters circulation

EOH generation is pure physics — functions take actual physical state (capital stock, ecosystem health, age distribution, knowledge base) and return entropy obligations. EOH fulfillment is where ε belongs — the machine/human split, registration curves, and fiscal mechanics are genuinely ε-driven.

Structural Conditions

Four conditions define system integrity. All must hold at every ε:

Condition Rule Enforced by
I — Ledger Identity TEH supply = created − destroyed condition_i_check()
II — Multiplier Band Skill multipliers within physics-grounded band condition_ii_check()
III — Zero Interest Balances grow through labor only, never passively condition_iii_balance_growth_check()
IV — Distributed Competency Human reserve in every essential domain condition_iv_check()

The system dashboard gives a one-call health check:

from hours_eoh.core.dashboard import system_dashboard
from hours_eoh.params import EohParams

snapshot = system_dashboard(epsilon=0.40, p=EohParams())
print(snapshot["overall"])  # GREEN / YELLOW / RED

Get Started

git clone https://github.com/Hours-Source/HOURS
cd HOURS
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Requires Python ≥ 3.10. No external service dependencies.

from hours_eoh.core.trajectory import canonical_physical_state
from hours_eoh.core.eoh_generation import total_eoh
from hours_eoh.core.eoh_fulfillment import eoh_to_teh_pipeline
from hours_eoh.params import EohParams

p = EohParams()
state = canonical_physical_state(0.40)
eoh = total_eoh(**state, p=p)
result = eoh_to_teh_pipeline(0.40, p=p)
print(f"EOH:  {eoh['total_eoh']:.3e}")
print(f"TEH created: {result['teh_created']:.1f}")

from hours_eoh.scenarios.sweep import epsilon_sweep

results = epsilon_sweep()
assert all(r["fiscally_solvent"] for r in results)
print(f"Arc coherent across {len(results)} ε values")

# Full arc sweep
python3 utils/eoh_cli.py arc --points 10

# System health at ε = 0.40
python3 utils/eoh_cli.py dashboard --epsilon 0.40

# GUF for a 3.5 SLU parcel
python3 utils/eoh_cli.py guf calculate \
    --area 3.5 --location 0.629 --use residential_primary --epsilon 0.40

Where to Go Next

  • Theory

    The mathematical foundations: what an economy is, the ε arc, the four entropy domains, structural conditions, EOH accounting, and the 9 design principles.

    :octicons-arrow-right-24: Read the theory

  • Developer Reference

    Complete API documentation for all modules — core/, land/, scenarios/, and research/. Includes worked code examples for every function.

    :octicons-arrow-right-24: Browse the API

  • Quick Start Guide

    Install, run the pipeline, check the dashboard, and run your first scenario. Annotated CLI examples for every command.

    :octicons-arrow-right-24: Quick start

  • Ground Use Fee Framework

    The full mathematical specification for the GUF — 14 functions, worked example at ε = 0.40, ecological write-down pathways, and the §9 rebuilding surcharge.

    :octicons-arrow-right-24: GUF specification

Running Tests

python3 -m pytest tests/ -q           # 998 tests
python3 -m mypy hours_eoh/            # type checking