THE SPHERE: Distributed Cognitive Capability and Economic Maturity Beyond Structural Growth Dependence.

The Sphere Research Programme - Foundational Documents This upload contains three integrated documents establishing the framework, technical boundaries, and falsification criteria for The Sphere: 01_The_Sphere_Central_Working_Paper: The core economic and conceptual framework. 02_Local_Cognitive_Infrastructure_Technical_Note: Feasibility constraints for offline quantised LLMs on reclaimed hardware. 03_The_Sphere_Open_Critique_Protocol: A structured framework for falsification and peer challenge. Abstract: This conceptual paper introduces the Sphere, an economic framework centred on distributed capability, substitutability of critical functions and economic maturity. Its technological premise is that quantised language models can now run offline on consumer devices, including hardware several years old, reducing the minimum capital required to place an interrogable knowledge interface inside a local node. This does not distribute all human knowledge, eliminate error or replace expertise. It changes the cost and location of access to a usable subset of formalised knowledge. The paper hypothesises a causal chain from local cognitive capability, combined with local knowledge, energy and tools, to improved operational and productive capability. It then distinguishes three phases of development: capability scarcity, consolidation and maturity. In the mature phase, all nodes satisfy a high threshold of vital capability, critical functions remain substitutable, and material throughput stays within ecological limits. The central question is whether indefinite aggregate growth remains economically necessary under those conditions. The Sphere is neither anti-market nor anti-growth. It treats growth as a means for removing capability deficits and asks whether growth can become optional once a safe and sustainable capability threshold has been reached. The paper specifies definitions, propositions, a preliminary formal framework, falsification criteria and an empirical research programme.