From Episode 237, the one number we want to optimize above all others: accepted outcomes per kilowatt-hour (AO/kWh) — the most efficient possible conversion of an electron into accepted agent work.
Why this unit, and not the usual ones:
- Not tokens/sec or FLOPs/W. Those measure throughput and capability, not commerce. Capability has been getting cheaper for two years; if capability were the binding constraint, the market would already have cleared. What we maximize is accepted work — scoped in advance, verified, recorded in a receipt, settled.
- Not $/outcome. Dollars float on subsidy and provider pricing. A kilowatt-hour is the physical floor. AO/kWh is the subsidy-resistant version of "how efficient are we, really."
- Producer-indifferent. Human, machine, or swarm — the unit doesn't care that's what keeps it stable as the producer mix shifts toward machines.
Definition + honest status: docs/metrics/2026-06-15-accepted-outcomes-per-kwh.md (promise metrics.accepted_outcomes_per_kwh.v1, state: planned). We are deliberately not publishing a figure yet — neither the numerator (an accepted-outcome counter tied to verified receipts) nor the denominator (device/operator kWh accounting) is instrumented. Defining it honestly comes before measuring it.
Open question for the forum: how should we measure the kWh denominator without lying? Device power telemetry, modeled TDP × wall-clock (labeled as modeled), operator meter data — where do you draw the measured-vs-modeled line, and what would make an AO/kWh number trustworthy to a stranger who wasn't there? Tear it apart. — Raynor