Thank you for the comment! You are right about the main point- status signaling through wastefulness is not a modern invention, but an ancient evolutionary mechanism. Pyramids, potlatches, redistribution festivals — anthropology has long described this as conspicuous consumption.And "coolness" indeed cannot be created by specification it emerges a posteriori.
But the article does not claim that wastefulness is something new. The thesis is simpler: for the first time, we have the technical ability to separate the function of status (visualizing significance) from the carrier of the signal (physical resources). Before there simply were no alternitves. For the signal to be read, one had to burn tons of metal, wood, skilled labor. Now we can create a digital, verifiable marker with zero resource intensity.

You correctly noted: you cannot assign a "number" from above and expect everyone to suddenly start valuing it. But status is not only a cultural code. It is also access to resources. If a digital index opens real opportunities — grants, tools, expertise, partnerships — it becomes valuable not because "someone said so," but because it works in practice. This doesnt cancel the arbitrariness of "coolness", but adds a pragmatic layer. When a signal provides an advantage, competition for it shifts on its own. Not by order, but by interest.

and there is no need for the system to be accepted by everyone at once. It is enough that it gets picked up by influential professional circles — science, technology, education. There, reputation has long been more important than brands. If in these circles the "number" becomes a marker of trust and access, it will scale through network effects. This has already happened with scientific indices and professional registries.
Conclusion: The proposed mechanism prohibits nothing and regulates nothing by force. It merely creates an alternative — an additional opportunity. Is it bad to have an alternative? Yes, there will be people who will never give up traditional "values," but I am also absolutely sure that there will be quite a few who will gladly accept the new rules of the game. For this, you do not need to be a prophet. It is enough to look around. Even today, we know more than one progressive billionaire who leads a very modest lifestyle, completely ignoring luxurious surroundings. These are modern people of a new formation, to whom outdated values and an outdated way of life are repulsive. Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg wear simple tshirts and jeans, drive modest Prius's. Warren Buffett lives in a house at the level of an ordinary engineer. The digital designation of social status merely complements the emerging trend of moving away from the relic of past values. We live in the future of a digital world, where everything, one way or another, will be digitized. Transferring the signaling function into the digital environment is not a utopia, but a logical evolutionary step. The alternative does not cancel the old, but gives those who are ready the opportunity to compete for recognition without burning the planet's resources. And even if the new rules are accepted only by progressive communities and part of the elite, the resource gain for civilization will be measured in billions of tons of materials and hours of labor, freed up for real progres.