Instructional capital

Instructional capital is symbols that can be used to guide or limit or restrict action by individual capital (people, if the instrucons are written in natural language) or infrastructural capital (equipment, if the instructions are software). It cannot generally make either individuals or infrastructure do what they are not trained or designed to do, but, it can help prevent them from doing most stupid and dangerous things.

When people begin to trust instructions, they tend to associate social capital with them, as symbolized by a brand, flag or label. This is usually a signal for those with power to start cheating and creating bad instructions that can no longer be trusted, but the good reputation of the brand, flag or label protects them from being caught for longer than would be the case without the reputation.