# 7. Implementation Status and Open Questions

## What exists in the workspace

The working implementation is a fork of the MIT-licensed Earth visualization project in `macro-culture-earth/`.

Current artifacts include:

- a Macro-Culture modification plan;
- a quadrant-grid generator;
- a preliminary Earth product definition named `macro_culture_quadrant`;
- a generated sector overlay;
- a Macro-Culture thesis document;
- a universal sector template;
- a constraint-comprehension matrix;
- an Empire Cycle template;
- a Great Lakes octagon audit;
- scored-sector batch files.

## Current data coverage

The conceptual thesis names 576 sectors. The current visualization artifact uses:

```text
24 longitude columns × 48 latitude rows = 1,152 grid cells
```

The current generated overlay contains 1,152 cells, but only eight cells have nonzero quadrant values. Those eight come from two scored-sector batches. This means the map is a **prototype**, not a completed global audit.

A historical workspace note says that a 576-sector energy audit was completed in April 2026, but the currently inspected prototype data do not contain a corresponding complete scored grid. That discrepancy must be resolved by locating, validating, and versioning the underlying dataset before claiming global coverage.

## What is not yet implemented

- a final decision between the 24 × 24 conceptual grid and the 24 × 48 visualization grid;
- a fully wired Macro-Culture selector in the Earth interface;
- a stable legend and “no data” display;
- trade-flow vectors;
- Constraint Field visualization;
- Empire Cycle time slider;
- sector hover panel;
- complete source provenance for all nine invariants;
- a reproducible global scoring pipeline;
- independent historical validation;
- a public interactive deployment.

## Recommended next build sequence

1. Normalize the geometry, naming, and data schema.
2. Finish the static map for the Great Lakes octagon.
3. Add confidence and missingness to every displayed sector.
4. Test the model against matched regions.
5. Add trade vectors only after sector variables are stable.
6. Add Empire Cycle playback only after historical records are sourced.
7. Publish the interactive visualization with a visible evidence legend.

## Open questions

- Should the canonical grid remain 24 × 24, or should the project formally adopt 24 × 48?
- Which nine variables belong in the measurement layer?
- How should “comprehension” be measured without confusing it with success?
- What is the appropriate spatial unit: regular cell, watershed, corridor, labor market, or political region?
- Do same-latitude regions actually compete more often once trade, empire, and technology are controlled for?
- Do complementary north–south resources predict exchange, or do power and coercion explain the pattern more strongly?
- Is a 200-year Empire Cycle detectable, or is it only a useful narrative interval?
- How should indigenous, local, and non-state forms of environmental knowledge be represented?
- Can the framework represent repair, redistribution, and deliberate non-expansion as successful outcomes?
- What results would make us abandon or substantially revise the thesis?

## Current status in one sentence

Macro-Culture has a strong conceptual seed, a useful local test case, and a preliminary visualization pipeline; it does **not** yet have a validated global dataset or a tested predictive theory.