Zen of Value, the "V" meme and the "$" Meme of Money

By Wayne Brown
This blog is a "work in progress" related to the current one by a long, flimsy bridge not yet created.

The idea behind "Zen of Value" is that we all have a super computer between our ears, capable of instantly making calculations that are beyond the ability of any traditional computer.

"Value" is a case in point, although when Hofstadter discusses the mind, he basically demonstrates the awesome power of this "meat computer". His career illustrates the fact that exploring the workings of the mind don't have much to do with "AI" after all.

"Value" seems to be one of those things that holds out promise for a formal definition, even a kind of math, that elude most categories. In particular:
  1. A lot can be learned from comparing "value" with whatever it is that "money" stands for.
  2. Money obeys the rules of arithmetic but value obeys only a subset. In particular, value a and value b can be compared but you can't do "math" on them.
  3. Value is subjective and time-sensitive, but this shouldn't prevent us from doing some formal analysis on it. This may be similar to General Relativity, where the equations apply only in an infinitesimal region of curved space and evolve over time. Value is a dynamic concept. Money is too but it evolves slowly and the subjective nature is systematically denied.
The human mind is capable of performing the following "calculation" with the speed of raw perception: Which of objects a or b has more value? What about b and c? The properties of "value" can be illustrated by this simple example.

  1. If a is a car and b is a jug of water, normally a>b unless you are dying of thirst
  2. Transitivity seems to hold in all situations, but that's worth investigating. Suppose, for example, that a is a car, b is a jug of water and c is a jug of beer. Usually, a>c>b. Whether you value beer over water would depend on the situation, which is analogous to the point on a curved surface at a specific time in relativity.
The "values" blog digs down into the meme of value. What can you say about value? Value is, in some way, almost as fundamental as the meme of "I".

Money, on the other hand (the "$" meme) superficially obeys mathematical principles but these principles break down under close inspection. For example, is an income of $1 million per year "worth" 10% more than an income of $900,000? What about the difference between an income of zero and an income of $10,000? Is a $200,000 car worth 100 times as much as a $2,000 car in good working order? Is a $200,000 car worth the same as 100 $2,000 cars? "Value" is creeping all over the place and undermining a lot of assumptions we make about "money".



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