Such a useful (condensed) summary of the history of money, which I've been searching for for some time, thank you Will.
What I also find fascinating is the evolution of human consciousness over the past 3.5 million years of human beings on this planet. Roger Briggs provides an equally succinct summary of these Major Evolutionary Transitions (MET) in his book, Emerging World:
- The Mimetic (3.5 MYA - Basic tool use, used mime to communicate)
- The Magical (1 MYA - Advanced tool-making and the use of fire)
- The Mythic (60,000 YA - Homo sapiens, capacity for language)
- The Material (5,000 YA - Rise of civilizations)
- The Planetary (emerging at present, at least according to some)
What this means is that Money only emerged in the Material Age and could be associated with all the externalities of our way of living under this construct that many are now decrying.
What I'm curious about is how Commitment Pooling is aligned with the Evolutionary Impulse driving us forward to this next MET, which is much more collaborative than competitive.
Joel, we are working on a living laboratory with 25k denizens in a rural valley in South Africa, and we are eagerly searching for approaches like you have described. I'll find you on LinkedIn too, if I may.
May we reschedule our meet and greet conversation, Michael? I want to offer Peter Russell's evolutionary depiction in A White Hole in Time. I love the assertion that there is an accelerating pace of human social and economic evolution. We can certainly have this transition wrapped up, as quickly as the US once went from the end of the Depression to full war production in a mere 14 months, 75 years ago, with none of today's technology… but I might have already said that.
Consider the entire history of money, post barter, as the history of exchange tokens (up to and including cryptocurrencies, which are primarily speculative/poker chip tokens.)
What might be the next generation of money that can transcend win-lose competition over these exchange tokens and give us a cooperative system that raises everyone up together with every advance in technology, infrastructure, human capabilities, and our ability to deploy free and abundant renewable resources?
Consider an economic accounting ledger that lives in The Commons and operates by protocol much like the Internet. Chapter 8 of Walden Two by B.F. Skinner is the only place I have ever seen such a ledger system depicted, but there are a group group of us hard at work to pilot such an economic ledger using modern technology. Imagine Community Loyalty Rewards that are earned for many other things besides spending: community volunteerism; youth academic performance; wellness and green activities; currently unpaid domestic labor, permaculture gardening, quality housing for everyone, increases in Social Security.
Such a ledger accounting system based on the masses of underutilized business productive capacity would require no higher taxes, no deeper debt, and no redistribution of wealth schemes.
What else would be advantageous about an economic ledger, overlaid on the Internet? Ledgers don't crash. Ledgers don't experience inflation and recession. No one can speculate with ledger entries, nor loan them for interest nor invest them for dividends. They would simply measure and match available capacity totoday's unmet needs.
Bigger discussion, but please track me down on LinkedIn.
yes, There is an intersection here of the Roman tradition around taxation using coins or tokens as a form of control .... and systems / traditions of resource coordination the predate such monetary practices - that can now start to re-emerge due to decentralized ledger systems and keep true to principals beyond Juno Moneta. Hope to talk soon Joel
Thank you Will. Also, the invention of coins allowed the rulers to get soldiers paid for their wars easily (and anonymously). The soldiers could move from one part of the country to another without the limited transferability of tally sticks or clay tablets (bookkeeping, which means commitment). They could buy everywhere (and by using gold even in other countries to be invaded). Then by taxing the non-nomadic farmers (not able to exit e.g. the country), which had to pay the tribute, the coins came back. So cash is tightly bound to "free trade" (plundering) and warfare.
Such a useful (condensed) summary of the history of money, which I've been searching for for some time, thank you Will.
What I also find fascinating is the evolution of human consciousness over the past 3.5 million years of human beings on this planet. Roger Briggs provides an equally succinct summary of these Major Evolutionary Transitions (MET) in his book, Emerging World:
- The Mimetic (3.5 MYA - Basic tool use, used mime to communicate)
- The Magical (1 MYA - Advanced tool-making and the use of fire)
- The Mythic (60,000 YA - Homo sapiens, capacity for language)
- The Material (5,000 YA - Rise of civilizations)
- The Planetary (emerging at present, at least according to some)
What this means is that Money only emerged in the Material Age and could be associated with all the externalities of our way of living under this construct that many are now decrying.
What I'm curious about is how Commitment Pooling is aligned with the Evolutionary Impulse driving us forward to this next MET, which is much more collaborative than competitive.
Joel, we are working on a living laboratory with 25k denizens in a rural valley in South Africa, and we are eagerly searching for approaches like you have described. I'll find you on LinkedIn too, if I may.
May we reschedule our meet and greet conversation, Michael? I want to offer Peter Russell's evolutionary depiction in A White Hole in Time. I love the assertion that there is an accelerating pace of human social and economic evolution. We can certainly have this transition wrapped up, as quickly as the US once went from the end of the Depression to full war production in a mere 14 months, 75 years ago, with none of today's technology… but I might have already said that.
Consider the entire history of money, post barter, as the history of exchange tokens (up to and including cryptocurrencies, which are primarily speculative/poker chip tokens.)
What might be the next generation of money that can transcend win-lose competition over these exchange tokens and give us a cooperative system that raises everyone up together with every advance in technology, infrastructure, human capabilities, and our ability to deploy free and abundant renewable resources?
Consider an economic accounting ledger that lives in The Commons and operates by protocol much like the Internet. Chapter 8 of Walden Two by B.F. Skinner is the only place I have ever seen such a ledger system depicted, but there are a group group of us hard at work to pilot such an economic ledger using modern technology. Imagine Community Loyalty Rewards that are earned for many other things besides spending: community volunteerism; youth academic performance; wellness and green activities; currently unpaid domestic labor, permaculture gardening, quality housing for everyone, increases in Social Security.
Such a ledger accounting system based on the masses of underutilized business productive capacity would require no higher taxes, no deeper debt, and no redistribution of wealth schemes.
What else would be advantageous about an economic ledger, overlaid on the Internet? Ledgers don't crash. Ledgers don't experience inflation and recession. No one can speculate with ledger entries, nor loan them for interest nor invest them for dividends. They would simply measure and match available capacity totoday's unmet needs.
Bigger discussion, but please track me down on LinkedIn.
yes, There is an intersection here of the Roman tradition around taxation using coins or tokens as a form of control .... and systems / traditions of resource coordination the predate such monetary practices - that can now start to re-emerge due to decentralized ledger systems and keep true to principals beyond Juno Moneta. Hope to talk soon Joel
Thank you Will. Also, the invention of coins allowed the rulers to get soldiers paid for their wars easily (and anonymously). The soldiers could move from one part of the country to another without the limited transferability of tally sticks or clay tablets (bookkeeping, which means commitment). They could buy everywhere (and by using gold even in other countries to be invaded). Then by taxing the non-nomadic farmers (not able to exit e.g. the country), which had to pay the tribute, the coins came back. So cash is tightly bound to "free trade" (plundering) and warfare.