Burkeanomics Sim – Alpha Launch
- Jun 9
- 4 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
After a decade of static artifacts, Burkeanomics finally has a living, breathing simulator. Today we release the Alpha test version of the Burkeanomics Simulator — an interactive tool based on Burkean Economics that lets you model how real governance affects real people.
Co-created with Grok (architecture) and Claude Code (software engineering), this Alpha demonstrates what’s possible when frontier AI collaborates with a real live Burkean man.
Contents
This post introduces the Sim, describes its initial Target Universe (the California Energy Economy), and gives a quick overview of the Sim’s development roadmap.
Warning
This new form of behavioral economics may amuse, confound or offend traditional economists. Plus, most people see no need for a New Economics. Even if they did, they wouldn’t expect or accept it from a non-economist of zero academic standing, who developed it as a hobby project. Also disqualifying to traditionalists is the fact that the Burkeanomics Sim utilizes many novel concepts, including the Burkeanomic Ontology, Burkean Class Structure, Electron Throttling, the Burkean BrainPower Utility Function, etc.
Naysayers notwithstanding, Burkeanomics divines how real people operate in economic congress. The Sim turns that into a live model. Approach it with an open mind and the economic and societal world around you will become understandable, even predictable.
Explore the Sim
You are welcome to visit the Burkeanomics Sim, peruse its displays, play with its sliders, tweak its parameters. However, you’ll need an account to save your work. Alpha accounts are free and available upon request — just reach out or comment below.
Dynamic Modeling
Tweak the Electron Throttles (governance mix sliders) and instantly see how Left-cCon, Center, and Right-dCon scenarios affect household health & wealth.
The model is first applied to the California Energy Economy: planes, trains & automobiles, stoves, furnaces, screens & more. It can also be applied to Healthcare, Education, Housing, Water, the Safety Net, and Agentic Economies. Those universes can be in California, Texas, Florida, America as a whole, even in cyberspace.
Economic Health & Wealth
The Sim calculates the health & wealth of a market on behalf of We The People in that market, e.g., California residents & the $6,500 we each spend per year buying and using energy. That health & wealth is measured by the BrainPower utility function, generating a single metric called BrainPower, which is denominated in Smart Dollars. The Sim shows you BrainPower for three governance cases: Left, Center & Right. (Spoiler Alert: The dCon Right delivers #More4More.)
Key Insight: The Right-dCon case delivers S$25.3T in BrainPower to California — a 60% improvement over the Left-cCon case.
Centralized Power vs. Decentralized Intelligence
Burkeanomics addresses the yin-yang relationship between Electrons and Nucleons. Electrons vastly outnumber Nucleons and thereby possess orders of magnitude more total applicable IQ. Yet Nucleons wield far more individual power. The Sim visualizes this inverse relationship, starting with intelligence.
4D bubble charts illustrate the power imbalance:
Tiny blue orb = You (the UE – the U Electron) at the center.
Huge yellow orbs = GovNukes (dominant on the Left).
Green orbs = Providers (far more numerous and competitive on the Right).
Red orbs = SinSayers (polluting the Left with new secular sins).
California Energy Economy: Initial Target Universe
The initial Target Universe models the Consumer Energy Economy of California.
Electrons = California households.
Nucleons = the governmental, provider, and SinSayer entities that orbit Electrons. For instance, most Californians have ~1.5 utilities from which to choose (e.g., PG&E in NorCal, SCE in SoCal).
Power per Player
Electron power is the amount spent per household on energy, energy services, and energized products (cars, stoves, furnaces, air conditioners, devices & networks). Electron income is irrelevant to this consumer model.
Nucleon power varies widely in form, yet is all denominated in dollars. It includes:
GovNukes: Taxing, policing, and judicial power.
Providers: Pricing, purchasing, investment, and hiring power.
SinSayers: Actionable notions of guilt and virtue (e.g., NetZero branding of fossil fuels as bad and wind as good).
Left, Right & Center Cases
Center Case: Roughly the current situation — Dem supermajority in Sacramento pushing NetZero, tempered by Trump 47 cutting federal money for Offshore Wind and other cCon monstrosities.
Left Case: Kamala (or another Dem) in the Oval Office + cCon success in Sacramento → tragic continuation of the Green New Scam: massively subsidized offshore wind, bans on gas stoves, fewer refineries and gas stations, etc.
Right Case: Steve Hilton wins in California and partners with President Trump → cheap gas, cheap power, healthy growing economy.
The Sim makes these differences quantifiable through the Burkean BrainPower Utility Function. Thus, it quantifies how #More4More for California households comes from the Right.
Roadmap
Alpha (current – a1.01)
Streamlit-based prototype. Crude UX, but fully functional. Known issues include mobile layout glitches and lame PDF generation. We want your feedback to shape coming iterations. Ping David Burkean.
Beta
Elegant React-based MVP UX.
Subclasses & Singular Individuals (layered configurable subclasses beneath the four primary classes + individual entities like the EPA, the California Coastal Commission, or specific utilities, e.g., PG&E).
Contest framework for Burkean Modeling contests
Annotation, presentation and comparison of contestant-created models.
Leaderboard, including structure for awarding prizes
Reputation system for contest participants
GA
Polished UX + Agentic Operation.
AI Mode: API access and Grok-like optimization agents running thousands of scenarios.
Universe Bazaar.
Full contest functionality running regularly.
Collaborators Wanted!
Want to collaborate or help push Burkeanomics forward? Ping me.
