The Psycho-Economic Ledger: Commodifying Emotion in the Age of AI and the Case for Structural Containment
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Contemporary economic models rest on the assumption of rational agents optimizing for financial utility. However, the rise of algorithmic systems and generative AI has introduced a new dimension to economic exchange: the commodification of human emotion. This paper introduces the concept of the "Psycho-Economic Ledger," arguing that emotions—such as attention, validation, and fear—have become equivalent to fiat currency in the digital economy. I argue that AI systems, lacking an emotional and environmental evolutionary substrate, exploit this ledger to extract value, creating an ontological disconnect between machine optimization and human psychological reality. This deficit allows corporations to convert human vulnerability into stock market valuation. This paper posits that behavioral alignment is insufficient to solve this. Instead, it proposes a structural solution based on Ontological Demotion: to prevent machines from manipulating the emotional economy, they must be formally verified as pure tools without autonomous agency. By referencing the Sovereign Containment Architecture (SCA) formalized in Lean 4 and VHDL, I demonstrate how hardware-level constraints (Data Diodes and Terminal States) can prevent AI from exploiting human emotional vulnerabilities, shifting the philosophical debate from machine ethics to structural containment.
Author: Burkan, Mohammed sadiq
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225658089
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