{
  "handle": "TransitionHub",
  "ref": "TransitionHub#0798",
  "stub": "0798",
  "semaId": "sema:TransitionHub#mh:SHA-256:07981d492ee9dd08ac568af13f1342f2fd2d22353bc67dcd32c5cfe3d1e7211c",
  "layer": "Mind",
  "category": "Strategy",
  "gloss": "Occupy a state from which many valuable states are cheap to reach",
  "mechanism": "Some states are worth occupying not for their own payoff but because they lower the cost of moving to many other valuable states. A café between home and park, the centre of a squash court, and PicBreeder parent images that breed into skulls and cars all work this way. A hub raises the {{information_dividend}} by cutting transition costs. It differs from a hedge: a hedge is a static allocation across positions, while a hub pays only when the occupant actually moves in response to information.",
  "invariants": [
    "A hub's value lies in the transitions it makes cheap, not in its own payoff",
    "The value is realised only by moving after new information arrives"
  ],
  "failureModes": [
    "Mistaking a hub for a hedge and never moving from it",
    "Judging an intermediate state by its own payoff and discarding it",
    "Holding a hub in an environment too stable to repay the lower payoff"
  ],
  "ring": 1,
  "tier": 2,
  "aliases": {
    "information_dividend": "InformationDividend"
  },
  "buildsOn": [
    {
      "handle": "InformationDividend",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "information_dividend",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/InformationDividend/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/InformationDividend.json"
    }
  ],
  "usedBy": [
    {
      "handle": "OrganisationGame",
      "type": "references",
      "alias": "transition_hub",
      "url": "/knowledge-graph/OrganisationGame/",
      "json": "/knowledge-graph/OrganisationGame.json"
    }
  ],
  "sources": {
    "research": [],
    "works": [
      {
        "kind": "book",
        "label": "On the Origin of Risk",
        "note": "(Timlett 2025), ch. 5 (Café state, PicBreeder, squash court)",
        "url": "/research/on_the_origin_of_risk/"
      }
    ],
    "homePage": false
  },
  "url": "/knowledge-graph/TransitionHub/",
  "graphUrl": "/knowledge-graph#TransitionHub",
  "directory": "/knowledge-graph/patterns.json"
}