  We define a discrete Menger-type curvature of d+2 points in a real separable
Hilbert space H by an appropriate scaling of the squared volume of the
corresponding (d+1)-simplex. We then form a continuous curvature of an Ahlfors
d-regular measure on H by integrating the discrete curvature according to the
product measure. The aim of this work, continued in a subsequent paper, is to
estimate multiscale least squares approximations of such measures by the
Menger-type curvature. More formally, we show that the continuous d-dimensional
Menger-type curvature is comparable to the ``Jones-type flatness''. The latter
quantity adds up scaled errors of approximations of a measure by d-planes at
different scales and locations, and is commonly used to characterize uniform
rectifiability. We thus obtain a characterization of uniform rectifiability by
using the Menger-type curvature. In the current paper (part I) we control the
continuous Menger-type curvature of an Ahlfors d-regular measure by its
Jones-type flatness.
