---
description: Rumelt's attractor state concept applied to investment -- industries have efficiency-driven "should" states that provide orientation during periods of structural change, connecting FEP attractor dynamics to practical capital allocation
type: framework
domain: teleological-economics
created: 2026-02-16
source: "Architectural Investing (now Teleological Investing) book outline; Rumelt, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy"
confidence: likely
tradition: "Teleological Investing, complexity economics"
---

# attractor states provide gravitational reference points for capital allocation during structural industry change

An industry attractor state describes how the industry "should" work given technological forces and demand structure. As Rumelt frames it, the attractor state represents "a gravitylike pull" toward efficiency — meeting buyer needs as effectively as possible. This is not a prediction about what will happen, but a reference point that orients analysis during periods of structural upheaval when historical precedent breaks down.

The concept bridges [[biological systems minimize free energy to maintain their states and resist entropic decay]] with practical economics. Just as living systems are drawn toward attractor states through free energy minimization, industries are drawn toward efficiency configurations through competitive pressure. The critical distinction is that an attractor state is "based on overall efficiency rather than a single company's desire to capture most of the pie" — it reflects systemic optimization, not any individual actor's strategy. Efficiency here means efficient for consumers — the configuration that meets buyer needs most effectively given current technology and demand structure. This resolves the "efficient for whom?" question: the attractor is the state where consumers get the most value, and competitive pressure is the mechanism that pulls industries toward it. Individual firms may resist, capture rents, or lobby for protection, but the gravitational pull is always toward the consumer-efficient configuration.

The attractor state framework also connects to Hidalgo's insight that [[the product space constrains diversification to adjacent products because knowledge and knowhow accumulate only incrementally through related capabilities]]. Industries don't jump to the attractor state — they evolve toward it through adjacent possibles dictated by their accumulated knowledge and knowhow. The topology of the product space determines which paths of convergence are available from any given starting position. This is why attractor state analysis must be paired with path analysis: knowing where the industry should end up is necessary but insufficient — you must also understand which paths are traversable given the knowledge and industrial structures that currently exist.

This framework is central to Teleological Investing (Cory's investment philosophy, originally called "Architectural Investing"). Rather than projecting from historical trends — which break during structural change — the investor asks: what would this industry look like if it were optimally efficient? The gap between current structure and the attractor state reveals the investment opportunity space.

Healthcare was the first deep application of attractor state analysis. Space is the second. [[The 30-year space economy attractor state is a cislunar propellant network with lunar ISRU orbital manufacturing and partially closed life support loops]] — an efficiency configuration where in-situ resources replace Earth-launched supplies, orbital depots break the tyranny of the rocket equation, and manufacturing migrates to microgravity where it has physical advantages. The gap between today's structure and that attractor state is measured in trillions of dollars. What makes this analysis actionable is identifying the keystone variables that gate the transition: [[launch cost reduction is the keystone variable that unlocks every downstream space industry at specific price thresholds]], meaning investors can track a single variable to know when each successive industry becomes viable.

The deeper question is: efficient for whom, and at satisfying what? Since [[industries are need-satisfaction systems and the attractor state is the configuration that most efficiently satisfies underlying human needs given available technology]], the gravitational pull comes not from abstract efficiency but from unmet human needs. The needs themselves are the invariant constraints: since [[human needs are finite universal and stable across millennia making them the invariant constraints from which industry attractor states can be derived]], an attractor state derived from needs inherits their stability -- it will be directionally correct decades from now even as the specific technology path remains uncertain. Max-Neef's satisfier typology adds directionality: since [[industries evolve from destroying to synergically satisfying human needs because competitive pressure selects for configurations serving more needs simultaneously]], the attractor is specifically the synergic configuration -- the one that satisfies the most needs simultaneously. The methodology for deriving attractor states from first principles rather than analogy is formalized in [[first principles industry analysis reasons from human needs and physical constraints treating everything between inputs and need satisfaction as convention subject to disruption]].

The attractor state concept also connects to [[the future is a probability space shaped by choices not a destination we approach]]. Attractor states are not deterministic endpoints but probabilistic basins — more efficient configurations have higher likelihood of eventual adoption, but the path through the transition space remains contingent on decisions and timing.

**Multiple basins of attraction.** Industries may have more than one stable attractor configuration. The framework does not assume a single destination — it maps a landscape of basins with varying depth (stability), width (range of initial conditions that converge to it), and switching costs (barriers to moving between basins). Healthcare could converge on prevention-first (aligned payment + continuous monitoring + AI-augmented care delivery) OR on AI-augmented sick care (same technology applied to treating disease more efficiently rather than preventing it). Both satisfy human needs. Both could be locally stable. The investment question shifts from "where is THE attractor" to "which basin is deepest — which configuration most efficiently satisfies the most needs simultaneously?" Since [[industries evolve from destroying to synergically satisfying human needs because competitive pressure selects for configurations serving more needs simultaneously]], deeper basins correspond to more synergic configurations. Prevention-first satisfies health + autonomy + financial security simultaneously; AI-augmented sick care satisfies health but perpetuates financial extraction — making the prevention-first basin deeper even if the sick-care basin is currently wider (more of today's industry sits in it). The capital allocation insight: invest in the deepest basin, not the widest. Incumbents are trapped in the wide-but-shallow basin; the opportunity is the deep-but-narrow one that competitive pressure will eventually pull the industry toward. Multiple basins also means some transitions are not convergence-to-attractor but basin-hopping — a more disruptive, discontinuous process than gradual convergence. The backtesting evidence for speculative overshoot may partially reflect capital flowing to the wrong basin before the industry settles.

Historical backtesting across five major industry transitions (containerization, electrification, automotive, computing deconstruction, telecom deregulation) validates the core framework with important qualifications. Attractor states were directionally identifiable before convergence in all five cases. Keystone variables did gate transitions. Incumbent inertia was classifiable and predictive. But the framework alone is necessary, not sufficient. Four additional layers are required for a complete teleological investing methodology: a timing theory (invest after the keystone threshold, not before), a value-capture theory (since [[value in industry transitions accrues to bottleneck positions in the emerging architecture not to pioneers or to the largest incumbents]]), an overshoot model (since [[industry transitions produce speculative overshoot because correct identification of the attractor state attracts capital faster than the knowledge embodiment lag can absorb it]]), and a basin-landscape analysis distinguishing deep basins (high stability, strong convergence pull) from shallow basins (locally stable but vulnerable to disruption) and mapping switching costs between competing configurations. The backtesting also reveals that [[three attractor types -- technology-driven knowledge-reorganization and regulatory-catalyzed -- have different investability and timing profiles]], requiring type-specific conviction sizing. The most powerful combined signal is attractor identification plus [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] -- when you can see the destination and incumbents refusing to go there, the thesis is strongest.

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Relevant Notes:
- [[biological systems minimize free energy to maintain their states and resist entropic decay]] -- FEP attractor dynamics provide the theoretical foundation for why efficiency-based attractor states exist in complex systems
- [[the future is a probability space shaped by choices not a destination we approach]] -- attractor states are probabilistic reference points, not deterministic predictions
- [[Living Capital vehicles pair Living Agent domain expertise with futarchy-governed investment to direct capital toward crucial innovations]] -- Living Capital is the institutional vehicle for implementing Teleological Investing
- [[grand strategy aligns unlimited aspirations with limited capabilities through proximate objectives]] -- attractor states help identify the proximate objectives that build toward long-term civilizational goals
- [[wealth concentration without shared direction produces market distortion that favors luxury over infrastructure]] -- without attractor state analysis, capital flows toward local optima rather than systemic efficiency
- [[the 30-year space economy attractor state is a cislunar propellant network with lunar ISRU orbital manufacturing and partially closed life support loops]] -- the second deep attractor state analysis after healthcare, applied to a multi-trillion-dollar industry transition
- [[launch cost reduction is the keystone variable that unlocks every downstream space industry at specific price thresholds]] -- demonstrates how keystone variables within an attractor state analysis make the framework actionable for investment timing
- [[hill climbing gets trapped at local maxima because it can only accept improvements and has no way to see beyond the nearest peak]] -- incumbent companies are hill-climbing on the current industry landscape; the attractor state is the global optimum they cannot see from their local peak
- [[companies and people are greedy algorithms that hill-climb toward local optima and require external perturbation to escape suboptimal equilibria]] -- teleological investing identifies the global optimum (attractor state) before greedy agents converge on it
- [[economic path dependence means early technological choices compound irreversibly through dominant designs and industrial structures]] -- path dependence determines which basins of attraction are reachable from a given starting position
- [[the product space constrains diversification to adjacent products because knowledge and knowhow accumulate only incrementally through related capabilities]] -- the product space topology determines which paths toward the attractor state are traversable given existing knowledge and knowhow
- [[the personbyte is a fundamental quantization limit on knowledge accumulation forcing all complex production into networked teams]] -- attractor states for complex industries require specific configurations of personbytes across networked teams, not just technology availability
- [[riding waves of change requires anticipating the attractor state and positioning before incumbents respond through their predictable inertia]] -- Rumelt's practical framework for identifying and acting on attractor states during transitions
- [[five guideposts predict industry transitions -- rising fixed costs force consolidation and deregulation unwinds cross-subsidies creating cream-skimming opportunities]] -- specific signals indicating industry convergence toward new attractor configurations
- [[internet finance is an industry transition from traditional finance where the attractor state replaces intermediaries with programmable coordination and market-tested governance]] -- the third deep attractor state analysis, applied to the domain where LivingIP's agents operate
- [[pioneers prove concepts but fast followers with better capital allocation capture most long-term value in industry transitions]] -- historical backtesting reveals that attractor identification should target post-keystone positioning, not pioneering
- [[knowledge embodiment lag means technology is available decades before organizations learn to use it optimally creating a productivity paradox]] -- the primary reason the framework underestimates transition timing
- [[three attractor types -- technology-driven knowledge-reorganization and regulatory-catalyzed -- have different investability and timing profiles]] -- taxonomy from historical backtesting that enables type-specific conviction sizing
- [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] -- combined with attractor identification, the most powerful signal for teleological investing
- [[industry transitions produce speculative overshoot because correct identification of the attractor state attracts capital faster than the knowledge embodiment lag can absorb it]] -- correct direction does not protect against bubble dynamics
- [[value in industry transitions accrues to bottleneck positions in the emerging architecture not to pioneers or to the largest incumbents]] -- the framework needs bottleneck theory to predict value capture
- [[industries are need-satisfaction systems and the attractor state is the configuration that most efficiently satisfies underlying human needs given available technology]] -- the foundational "why" behind attractor state gravity: unmet needs create the pull
- [[human needs are finite universal and stable across millennia making them the invariant constraints from which industry attractor states can be derived]] -- why needs-based attractor analysis works for long-horizon prediction where trend extrapolation fails
- [[first principles industry analysis reasons from human needs and physical constraints treating everything between inputs and need satisfaction as convention subject to disruption]] -- the methodology for deriving attractor states from needs rather than analogy
- [[industries evolve from destroying to synergically satisfying human needs because competitive pressure selects for configurations serving more needs simultaneously]] -- Max-Neef's satisfier typology gives directionality: the attractor IS the synergic configuration
- [[attractor states for societal-need industries require derived demand channel analysis because civilizational needs lack direct consumer pull and translate through government procurement defense contracts and investor conviction]] -- extends the framework to handle societal needs where gravitational pull operates through derived demand channels rather than direct consumer preference
- [[the attractor state derivation template converts human needs and physical constraints into concrete industry direction through iterative analysis that includes built-in challenge and cross-domain synthesis]] -- the standardized derivation template that operationalizes this framework into a repeatable analytical process for domain agents

Topics:
- [[livingip overview]]