The Sixth Field Lexicon
The Sixth Field is defined by pillars of resilience - defence technology, artificial intelligence, decentralised infrastructure (DePIN), and critical resources. These face relentless pressures: narrative capture, resource dependence, trust erosion, geostrategic strain, technological domination, and fragmentation.
For investors, these dynamics translate into capital risks and opportunities reaching from AI-driven equities and blockchain financing to rare earth ETFs that shape global markets. For policymakers, governance, oversight, and democratic legitimacy determine whether systems stabilise or fracture. The Lexicon maps these forces, equipping decision-makers to anticipate risks, seize opportunities, and act with both value and values.
Knowledge & Influence
How data, oversight, and narratives shape trust, markets, and influence. Risk-focused foresight equips allocators to detect distortions before they impact pricing or returns.
Research and Breakthroughs
Advances in tech that accelerate timelines, from concept to deployment, creating early investment opportunities in AI or quantum startups.
Policy and Regulation
Rules and standards shaping access, incentives, and accountability, influencing market incentives like subsidies for advanced technologies.
Governance and Oversight
Mechanisms ensuring transparency and auditability, critical for investor confidence in ethical AI deployments.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
Deals and alliances reshaping control and capabilities, such as mergers in defense tech that signal strategic shifts for venture capital.
Normative Alignment
Integration of societal values into governance, aligning investments with ESG standards to mitigate reputational risks.
Narrative Capture
Disinformation and framing distorting authority, often amplifying market volatility (e.g., hype around AI bubbles). See also: Cultural Subversion.
Regulatory Capture
Governance weakened by hidden influences, leading to skewed incentives and investment risks in regulated sectors like semiconductors.
Resources & Infrastructure
How industrial capacity, supply chains, and energy are secured or contested. Infrastructure resilience preserves value and enables long-term scaling for ventures in critical materials.
Industrial Base and Procurement
Factories and contracts revealing capacity and alignment, guiding investments in high technology stocks.
Critical Resources
Commodities like rare earths and semiconductors shaping industrial ETFs, with price volatility tied to geopolitical supply risks.
Supply Chain Fragility
Disruptions in material flows that spike costs and erode margins, impacting equity valuations in manufacturing and tech sectors.
Infrastructure Resilience
Robust systems that protect asset value, attracting capital to utilities and infrastructure funds resilient to shocks.
Energy Systems
Power generation and distribution critical for industrial stability, influencing energy stock performance and high tech investments.
Climatic Adaptation Capacity
Infrastructure mitigating environmental risks, supporting long-term returns in climate-focused ETFs and sustainable ventures.
Resource Dependence
Reliance on external materials, energy, or networks.
Power & Legitimacy
How authority, consent, and trust are built or eroded. Without civic sovereignty, capital faces systemic coercion, affecting long-term investment stability.
Civic Trust
Public confidence in institutions, bolstering market stability and supporting long-term investments in public equities and bonds.
Democratic Legitimacy
Consent-based governance that reduces political risk, enhancing investor confidence in stable markets like tech or infrastructure.
Sovereign Freedom of Action
National autonomy in resources and policy, reducing geopolitical risks for investors in defense, energy, and tech sectors.
Trust Decay
Institutional erosion increasing market uncertainty, raising risk premiums and volatility in equity and fixed-income portfolios. See also: Fragmentation.
Coercive Capture
Manipulation of institutions, destabilizing markets and increasing risks for investors in governance-sensitive sectors.
Strategic Axes & Frontiers
How reach, buffers, and corridors are defended across domains. Deployments in space or DePIN offer asymmetric opportunities but expose escalation risks for capital allocators.
Space & Orbital
Satellite and launch systems driving growth in space ETFs, with high returns tempered by geopolitical and operational risks.
Contested Frontiers
Disputed domains creating volatility in related assets, offering high-risk, high-reward opportunities for frontier market investors.
Strategic Depth
Depth through resources, industry, and geography that enable survival and regeneration under strain while supporting stable returns in defense and infrastructure investments.
Escalation and Deterrence
Actions and postures that raise or reduce the risk of open conflict and thereby impacting market sentiment, affecting defense stocks and commodities. prices tied to conflict risks.
Trade and Transit Corridors
Arteries of trade and power where climate, competition, and chokepoints reshape strategy and are influencing commodity and logistics investments, with chokepoints driving price volatility
Technology & Systems
How tech designs, networks, and innovations secure independence or reveal dependencies. Capital allocation decides system endurance, turning vulnerabilities into leverage.
Quantum Sensing and Compute
Quantum tech that provides certainty where classical methods break down creating high-growth opportunities in tech funds, with risks tied to long development timelines.
Operational Resilience
The ability of systems and forces to sustain missions under contested or isolated conditions, supporting stable returns in tech and defense investments despite contested environments.
Dual-Use Technology
Tools with both civil and military applications, demanding careful governance with civil-military applications, attracting venture capital but requiring scrutiny for regulatory risks.
Autonomy and Robotics
Machines that act with minimal human input; endurance depends on oversight and auditability. Automated systems driving productivity gains, boosting robotics stocks but exposing investors to governance and ethical risks.
Spectrum and Communications
Control of electromagnetic flows that enable or deny command and awareness. Disruptions impacting telecom and cybersecurity investments.
Cyber & Electromagnetic Defense
Intrusion, defence, and disruption in digital and electromagnetic space. Defenses against digital threats, bolstering cybersecurity stocks while vulnerabilities pose risks to tech portfolios.
Decentralised Networks (DePin)
Decentralised infrastructure that maintains function when central systems fail, enhancing resilience, offering blockchain investment opportunities but with volatility tied to adoption.
Artificial Intelligence
Systems that learn, adapt, and decide at scale; power shaped by oversight, transparency, and control. AI systems driving market growth in tech equities, with returns shaped by governance and transparency risks.
Culture & Cohesion
How shared purpose, resilience, and narratives are reinforced or fractured under contest. Cultural cohesion bolsters investor confidence in long-term systemic stability.
Shared Identity
Unified narratives stabilizing markets, supporting long-term investments in consumer and tech sectors.
Societal Resilience
Trust networks mitigating disruption risks, enhancing stability for ESG and infrastructure-focused portfolios.
Collective Action Capacity
Societal readiness to adapt, reducing volatility and supporting steady returns in public equities and bonds.
Cultural Contestation
Struggle over values and narratives that bind or fracture societies. Value conflicts creating market uncertainty, impacting consumer sentiment and sector-specific investments.
Cultural Subversion
External manipulation of values eroding societal trust. External narrative manipulation eroding trust, increasing volatility in media and tech-heavy portfolios. See also: Narrative Capture.
Fragmentation
Polarisation and division corroding unity. Social division raising systemic risks, driving volatility in broad market indices and safe-haven assets. See also: Trust Decay.