Symbiocene Key ideas: Money converted into inflexible energy exchange (?) 120,000 population works within the existing system Capitalization provided by coop structure (not bank, not ROI) Discussion: Scrapping "money" for an "inflexible energy-based" unit is extremely radical This goes back to the Marxist economic theory that explores the "intrinsic or fair" value of things Government (if any) has no role to play in controlling the currency, which is seen as a good thing This implies a strongly negative view of "government" in general Coops are assumed to scale up to cover all aspects of the economy, which may make sense since Symbiocene is basically a big Kibbuz This type of money has never been tried, but it was proposed by HG Wells in " Modern Utopia " To cite one of a thousand problems, the value of the currency would change wildly as it tracks the "real" cost of energy.  It would be like basing the currency on a barrel of

  This is a fantastic book. Highly recommended. What follows is just a home for my notes on the book. Also, see Christine Desan , a commentator on money and the institutional structures that support it. There is a connection with my AI deliberations. "Money" is in the eye of the beholder. Piketty points out that the social structures behind it are also in the eye of the beholder, such as class, property, and borders. This leads to the observation that many see elements of capitalism, such as inequality, are real and not "subjective." Economic inequality tangibles to actual results. The human "economy" is built on top of a real environment. Money is imaginary until you have none. Wealth is in the eye of the beholder until you look at the physical destruction involved in our economic history (war, depression, climate change). Since all aspects of the "economy" and the structures of society are subjective, it is not surprising to see wildly differen

I'm no expert, but I can see when "experts" are 180 degrees from each other. For example, in an interview with New York Times "Daily ", an expert economist is asked where all these trillions of dollars of the bailout money are coming from. He seems to think that all Federal funds are either collected in taxes or "borrowed into existence". The implications are that it will take generations to "repay" all these massive loans. This seems factually wrong in several respects if you know "Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)". MMT is not exactly a "theory" needing proof. It is simply a description of how things work in the accounts of a sovereign nature when it comes to its sovereign currency. For one thing, all government funds spent are materialized "out of the blue". This applies to all spending all the time and not just in times of crisis. The exception which is not really an exception is government borrowing that covers t

Some thoughts about the super-obscure " Modern Utopia ," by HG Wells. This is almost free (99 cents) from Kindle. It's well worth reading for the money, and I encourage people to give it a look. For one thing, it's a literary tour de force - a totally unique way of dealing with a subject. HG sets a task for himself that's worth noting for those of us who "live in our heads". Thinking about Utopia is a special kind of meditation. What would be a perfect world? HG takes due note of other efforts going all the way back to Plato's Republic  and Thomas Mores' Utopia . HG says you need to jump into this perfect world yourself and imagine this world to be populated by people you recognize as humans like yourself and people unlike yourself. Perhaps imagine a Utopia that doesn't boil down to a world governed by people like you according to your values. Given HG's example, I have found this to be good advice - even a roadmap to encourage us to

In " What Money Can't Buy ," Michael J. Sandel attacks the value issue as a philosopher. Ideally, the job of a philosopher is to make us think more clearly about critical issues. As a philosopher, Sandel doesn't offer definitive answers. His business is to ask the right questions, clarify the terminology and provide "edge cases." If  you watch Sandel's lectures on Justice , you will get a taste of his process: A "Socratic" moderation of discussions about what is right and why. Sandel looks for "edge cases" and questions our vocabulary. The result is penetrating insight into the subject that pushes aside much of the discussion that assumes that justice can be achieved by tweaking the economy. Economics, especially since it embraced the concept of "incentives" has abandoned the pretense of moral neutrality. Specifically, economics is seen in the light of political philosophy. Economic theories are thinly veiled  poli

One basic claim of "Dimensions of Value" is that money is a poor yardstick for measuring value. Unfortunately is the language we use to speak about value. Even so, money itself is not as "real" as it seems, even when we look at it all on its own. How is it that we, as individuals, see money to have value? Money appears to be simple. It obeys the rules of arithmetic. You can add or subtract money to money, divide or multiply money by a number, multiply. This tends to give money an extra aura of "reality", hiding what it stands for, namely debt. With its mask off, money can be obtained by accumulating debt. Money can be used to pay a debt. Money can be used to pay or collect "interest" on a loan. Money is a way to create, buy, sell and ultimately eliminate debt. According to capitalist economics, every single thing is "worth" the amount of debt the buyer is willing to incur to "own" it. This may seem to be a crazy way of pu

In a previous post, I mentioned how our world view - especially our perceived system of values - comes into our politics . At the same time, political players tend to misrepresent their own value system and the value system of their opponents to gain power. Power itself is a value worth looking into. In fact, "political" power seems to show up in all the "social great apes" and many other species. My aim here is simply to visualize this dimension - to come up with a visual metaphor that helps us think of this type of value. There are many values similar to "political power". I chose to talk about "influence" as a representative of this class of values. These networks are essential to understanding one of the themes of this entire blog: the superorganism. Networks of value play a role similar to the nervous system of the individuals who make up these organisms. They account for "why" these organisms value what they value and do what the

I have written a lot in the past about what I called "The Zen of Value". The "Zen" idea refers to the concept of sitting back, clearing your mind of preconceptions and seeing things as they really are. Another title that occurs to me is "Dimensions of Value". It turns out that this metaphor is quite fruitful and worth exploring. It grows out of a previous post: " Human Welfare And the Four Economies ". Upon thinking of it, there are more than four and the mental picture of "dimensions" is helpful. The "dimensional" aspect promises to add some rigor to the underlying subject. The "royal road" to the "Zen" view of this subject is the realization that "money" is a poor measure of "value".  You already know in your bones that this is wrong but you have never wondered how, in detail, it's wrong and how, specifically you could see things better in a way to make better decisions for yourse

An excellent CBC Ideas episode is a nuanced treatment of how we tend to become more "conservative" as we grow older. I felt that the entire discussion was missing the point, or at least the "lefties" and "conservatives" were talking past each other. We have lost sight of the real world around us and have grown to depend on utterly unreliable ways of thinking about it. There is a lot to unpack here. For one thing, words such as "liberal" and "conservative" suffer from " reification " - slipping into thinking that something is a "thing" just because we use a name. "Socialists" have famously never agreed on what "real" socialism is - they are always accusing each other of not being "real" socialists" The idea of "conservatism" is just as amorphous, as illustrated by its defenders in the CBC episode. Why, for example, is Trump "conservative". Of course, conserv

(Originally posted in " The Zen of Value ") Discussions about how money originates often start with the assumption that it evolved to facilitate trade and "store value". Otherwise, so the story goes, you and I would simultaneously want something somebody else had (say, you have more fish than you need and I have extra sheep). There is scant evidence for "cash" arising out of this situation. Evidence for another narrative can be found in human behavior that naturally arises when "cash" is in short supply. Say, you go fishing and catch 5 nice big salmon. It would not be unusual at all for you to show up at my door and offer me a fresh salmon "for free". On the other hand, we would tacitly understand that this establishes a debt. Perhaps at some point, I'd mow your lawn or give you a basket of berries, or jam from my last berry picking trip. The math doesn't need to work out. If I'm in bad shape and have nothing to give in retu

In a previous post , I wondered about how debt becomes the "civilized" mechanism to form the skeleton of a structure that recognizably similar to the kleptocracies documented in "Thieves of State". The theory is that over time (and a few political revolutions), "Western" societies settle into a way to suck the blood out of the poor "legally", eliminating the need for overt corruption such as bribes and kickbacks. In many of these "democracies", bribery continues to be important in the form of "dark" political contributions that constantly outweigh the desires of the general public. Money itself becomes a corrupting influence. But let's take a look at debt first - especially its connection to "capital" or "wealth" - the material goods of a society. Especially with the appearance of cryptocurrency, we find people believing the myth of "fiat currency" - the idea that the government can print piec