Explore a digital resource cost
What would we need to count before putting a resource price on a digital guide?
At your own pace
Start with these sources
Your first move: Choose a digital object, its purpose, audience and time window before looking for a coefficient.
Without AI
- List creation, distribution, storage and use; keep other lifecycle concerns in their own units.
- Inspect one source and write its boundary, units and why it fits—or does not fit—your object.
- Calculate only supported components; write your proposal and what would make you revise it.
With GenAI
Bring your own AI tool and the source material. This atlas does not send your data anywhere or run an AI model.
- Ask your collaborator for alternative boundaries and their tradeoffs, then choose, combine or introduce another.
- Supply source excerpts and locators; ask which inputs are measured, estimated, assumed or unknown.
- Check one conversion yourself and challenge the draft conclusion before writing your own proposal.
A prompt to make your own
Using only the source material and scenario I supply, offer two possible accounting boundaries with their tradeoffs. Do not choose for me. After I decide, identify compatible inputs, show their units and conversions, and keep missing values unknown. Do not fabricate coefficients or combine unlike units. Cite each source-based input and distinguish our assumptions. Ask what evidence would change my proposal. I will supply my object, purpose, audience, time window, sources and assumptions.
Make something: A scoped proposal, one checkable calculation, and a record of what remains unknown.
Keep your footing
- A citation needs a reasoning bridge to the claim or input it supports.
- Unknown is not zero; a subtotal is not a lifecycle total.
- A per-use quantity is not the total or a measure of human benefit.
Why follow this question?
Follow a worked conversation
The Digital Slug walkthrough follows a prepared human–AI exchange. The human chooses an object the AI did not offer, combines ideas, and revises an assumption about reuse. Follow the decisions, then try a different proposal.
Keep the proposal yours
A useful collaborator can find gaps or improve a calculation. Your purpose and reasons still need to appear in what you propose. You may finish with an incomplete estimate and a better next question.
Go a little further
Change the definition of one Slug and explain what your alternative makes easier to see.
Worked examples: What does digital stuff really cost?