when the collective interest changes…
what protects a person whose contribution is valuable under one value function from being devalued when the system adopts another?
What actually happens when a Value Function changes. Energy flows continuously. A VF change alters what gets rewarded going forward. Your past contributions stay in the Timeline — the Events are recorded, they don’t disappear. But they don’t automatically carry their old weight forward either. The record stays; the reward changes.
What protects you procedurally. VF changes go through governance. They shouldn’t be arbitrary or fast. A well-designed instance requires deliberation, voting, maybe supermajorities. That protects you from being blindsided. But procedural protection isn’t substantive protection. If the vote goes against you, you will lose those future rewards.
What protects you practically. Most Actors participate across multiple Value Functions, not one. If Property stops rewarding what you do but Curation still does, you shift. You’re not zeroed out. The edge case is someone whose contribution is concentrated in a single VF that changes. That’s real, but it’s not the default. And Portal is the backstop: you keep identity, history, relationships. You lose Energy position in the old instance. So exit protects the person, not the position.
So the actual risk is compound: a VF change removes the specific reward your contribution depends on, you haven’t diversified, governance approved the change, and you don’t want to exit. That’s a real scenario, but it’s not “any VF change can devalue you.”