Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
On 07/22/2015 10:47 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: Omigod! That's already happening. You really did say, coopete, didn't you? Whew! Thanks for catching that. After I sent it I thought everyone would see it as a point mutation of compete. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Omigod! That's already happening. You really did say, coopete, didn't you? Whew! Thanks for catching that. After I sent it I thought everyone would see it as a point mutation of compete. And I imagined a portmanteau neologism for the verb describing the action of co-optition FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
On Jul 23, 2015 8:03 AM, Steve Smith sasm...@swcp.com wrote: And I imagined a portmanteau neologism for the verb describing the action of co-optition Those words are way too big for me! FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
%2Fwww.socjologia.amu.edu.pl%2Fisoc%2Fuserfiles%2F40%2Ffriedman-1953.pdfei=Mw-wVaXrBYa_0ASw7angCwusg=AFQjCNEOoVQxqz3Op2NBhHQ_spu1U8_Plgsig2=9yIIdz9crsuof9E6s9juQAbvm=bv.98197061,d.dGo ) and the Keynesians of one or another generation. 6. BACK TO AN OPINION: I think the reason we face may of these problems is that they are hard. Money is, among other things, a component in many mechanisms to solve complicated coordination and information problems. It also gives permissions and thus frames the forms of available incentives. Inevitably it therefore becomes a component in social power structures. What its roles can be socially depend on what its institutional and mechanistic features are (tautologically). I would find an analytic discussion, which understands that distinction, and then addresses the different parts, talking about which things we have empirical grounds to think we understand, and which should be viewed as confusions, interesting. \Anyway... Eric On Jul 23, 2015, at 3:23 AM, Nick Thompson wrote: Hi Merle, Can you give one or two sentences to suggest why it interests you? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 1:30 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Subject: [FRIAM] Interesting Link http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
[FRIAM] Interesting Link
http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Hi Nick, Visit our web site: www.emergentdiplomacy.org, click past our landing page, and read about Bretton Woods 3.0 that we're convening next year in Santa Fe. It will tell you all. Where are you? On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:23 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Hi Merle, Can you give one or two sentences to suggest why it interests you? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 1:30 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* [FRIAM] Interesting Link http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/ -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Hi Merle, Can you give one or two sentences to suggest why it interests you? N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 1:30 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Subject: [FRIAM] Interesting Link http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/ -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism. There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com mailto:g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/ -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mailto:me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 tel:%28303%29%20859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mailto:me
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Gary writes: “As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin.” An obvious motive would be population control, and secondarily as a new surveillance mechanism. Displacing cash with digital currency could be a tactic to keep closer tabs on how money is used. What explanation do they give? Marcus FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff Guardian on alternative currencies.docx Description: MS-Word 2007 document FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Good observations Gary, and good resources Merle... I recommend David Graeber's "Debt: the first 5000 Years" by DAvid Graeber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years Whether the end-all of perspective on our current conditions, I find that his grounding as an Anthropologist rather than an Economist or Politician makes all the difference. In the spirit of "what you measure is what you will optimize", An anthropologist is studying (measuring) a broader range of the human experience and therefore her ideas will be more oriented toward optimizing the "human experience" rather than "efficient and powerful economies or governance"... I am guessing that you (Merle) are already familiar with this work? - Steve Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source,
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
So you think altruism is odd? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism.There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/ -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Merle - So you think altruism is "odd"? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! I believe Nick's point was that humans have a capacity for a kind of altruism not seen in other animals. Most cultures seem to have a strong potential for altruism beyond family and clan. Some animals *do* seem to show spot examples of it, but I believe a great deal of our anecdotal reports are more about our projection onto animals (e.g. Tarzan, Mowgli) than actual observation. I once watched a flock of Pinon Jays drive one of my cats to release the Robin she had grabbed... and while it *looked* like they were rescuing the Robin, at best they were rescuing "something that looks a lot like a member of our own species/flock" and they might not have acted as quickly or assertively if it had been a sparrow or even more to the point, a mouse? There is also the possibility that they might have just been responding to the Cat's predatation as a threat to them "by proxy"... clearly a higher instinct, but Corvids are known for their advanced intelligence among birds. I really doubt that Robins would exhibit the same behaviour... or that a snake would attack a Robin for pulling a worm out of the ground! On the other hand, maybe (as Libertarians might hold) all of what passes for "altruism" humans could be "enligthened self-interest"? At least motivated by survival of the germ-line and possibly by extension, the clan or "the people". It certainly isn't "odd" in a perjorative sense except for the most died-in-the-wool Libertarian sense I don't think. I suspect this is the use of the term you take exception to Merle? I'm a big fan of altruism, even when I suspect it's roots being more selfish than we want to believe. - Steve FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Merle, Well, it is odd from an evolutionary standpoint. I taught a course for 20 years entitled “The Paradox of Animal Sociality”, so it must be odd. One could, I suppose, argue that it’s not odd at all, since the organization of any individual body, indeed of any complex cell, implies the suppression of the reproductive tendencies of the components that make it up. Perhaps “odd” is wrong? Theoretically problematic? In deciding whether or not to feel sorry for me, please take into account the whole picture. I think that people are constantly teetering on two knife edges, one between good and evil, and the other between selfish and altruistic. So you have your evil altruism and your good selfishness, as well as your others. By the way, I hate that word problematic. It suggest to anybody as old as I am that there is somewhere in NYC a cafeteria, called a Problemat, where one can purchase a juicy problem by putting a few coins in the door of the problem you like, and pulling it out, piping hot and ready to chew on. I have gone looking for that store in NYC, and never found it. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 4:04 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link So you think altruism is odd? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net mailto:nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism. There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com ] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com mailto:friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com mailto:g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Whoa, our bailout was lots bigger: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/22/business/sizing-up-the-greek-and-american-bailouts.html?_r=0 On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 5:59 PM, David Eric Smith desm...@santafe.edu wrote: Hi Marcus, and thanks, “4. Back to mechanism: If the above are correct, then any sub-system of the economy that depends on a bitcoin-like digital currency will be subject to the stresses that come from an inflexible-supply money such as gold, and those will need to be addressed somehow. “ Of course, Bitcoin is the biggest, but still just one of many existing or possible digital currencies (some of them having the properties of gold). Others, like NXT coin, reward holding the currency rather reward mining it. If creating these currencies means little more than creating a protocol and supporting code, and building a community around it, then different systems of governance can be built around the rules, including the ability to have it be a flexible money supply.In principle, trans-national economies could emerge, and they could gain more momentum than the official currencies of smaller nations. Yes, wonderful. The concepts of ecologies of monies, near-monies, and credit instruments. I would love to see a serious push toward a theory of economic dynamics, driven by the ability to create, and the need to understand, systems of this kind. I wonder (technically) what would be needed to see a productive direction into doing this scientifically well, and (societally/academically) what would be needed to draw a community to it capable of making some genuine headway. All best, Eric FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
I wonder if altruism is more prevalent among women than men? It’s my impression that this list is pretty heavily loaded with dorky, geeky guys (speaking for myself :-). At least from an evolutionary standpoint, it seems that we XYs may have less to gain by caring about anything but sowing seed across the veldt, so to speak. Of course, even if that is true true, we are a heck of a lot more complex than that, and altruism has evolved in our species. Still, I wonder if it is more prevelant among women. in Anthro 101, it was emphasized to us that in some cultures men are more protective/supportive of their sister's children than their own... their maternal sister's children are guaranteed to share a minimum of 1/4 your DNA while your presumed own children may well not share *any*. I feel comfortable enough with the genetic evolution pressures toward altruism within a kinship group, but am still fascinated by the less obvious variations. Even/for example, the way many of us have a huge empathy/sympathy for all living things and perhaps even fewer for things like the biosphere as a whole. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Hi Nick, I just got this, 8 hours after you sent it. No wonder I'm confused. Thanks for your thoughts. Let's together hope that prosocial behavior is part of our evolutionary path. If our brains can't get there in time, we are indeed doomed. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: Merle, Well, it is odd from an evolutionary standpoint. I taught a course for 20 years entitled “The Paradox of Animal Sociality”, so it must be odd. One could, I suppose, argue that it’s not odd at all, since the organization of any individual body, indeed of any complex cell, implies the suppression of the reproductive tendencies of the components that make it up. Perhaps “odd” is wrong? Theoretically problematic? In deciding whether or not to feel sorry for me, please take into account the whole picture. I think that people are constantly teetering on two knife edges, one between good and evil, and the other between selfish and altruistic. So you have your evil altruism and your good selfishness, as well as your others. By the way, I hate that word problematic. It suggest to anybody as old as I am that there is somewhere in NYC a cafeteria, called a Problemat, where one can purchase a juicy problem by putting a few coins in the door of the problem you like, and pulling it out, piping hot and ready to chew on. I have gone looking for that store in NYC, and never found it. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 4:04 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link So you think altruism is odd? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism.There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Omigod! That's already happening. You really did say, coopete, didn't you? On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 11:35 PM, glen geprope...@gmail.com wrote: On 07/22/2015 10:20 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: I just got this, 8 hours after you sent it. No wonder I'm confused. I've been trying to track the X-Assp-* headers to find reasons for the funny list behavior, from which I finally discovered why my e-mails resulted in the [SPAM] header (beyond the obvious ;-). It was because of the periods in my e-mail name (glen e. p. ropella), which caused the system to add double quotes, which triggered one of X-Assp's rules. But Nick's were clean. So, it's not X-Assp at fault there. Let's together hope that prosocial behavior is part of our evolutionary path. If our brains can't get there in time, we are indeed doomed. Maybe we'll speciate into individualists vs socialists and coopete! FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
On 07/22/2015 10:20 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote: I just got this, 8 hours after you sent it. No wonder I'm confused. I've been trying to track the X-Assp-* headers to find reasons for the funny list behavior, from which I finally discovered why my e-mails resulted in the [SPAM] header (beyond the obvious ;-). It was because of the periods in my e-mail name (glen e. p. ropella), which caused the system to add double quotes, which triggered one of X-Assp's rules. But Nick's were clean. So, it's not X-Assp at fault there. Let's together hope that prosocial behavior is part of our evolutionary path. If our brains can't get there in time, we are indeed doomed. Maybe we'll speciate into individualists vs socialists and coopete! FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Yes, obviously get out of the EuroZone, but why, Owen, not the EU as well? On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Owen Densmore o...@backspaces.net wrote: Interesting point on Greece recently, via Italian language podcast (La Radio Ne Parla, RAI 1). Italians flock to Greece for vacations. The east coast of Italy (Ancona area) has lots of ferries to get there. A weird problem popped up: the cash economy (which Italy shares). The banks have been limiting the amount of withdrawals. Apparently this includes ATMs. But travelers have to be able to get a fairly large amount of money out daily. So Greek retailers and restaurants are now accepting credit/debit cards. Thus the VAT, which is huge, is now easily collected if cards are used. Another side effect: because its a cash economy, robbery is apparently rising. Any tourist is likely to have several hundred euros. I really think Greece should stick with their no vote and simply stay in the EU, not EuroZone. -- Owen On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 4:17 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: I wonder if altruism is more prevalent among women than men? It’s my impression that this list is pretty heavily loaded with dorky, geeky guys (speaking for myself :-). At least from an evolutionary standpoint, it seems that we XYs may have less to gain by caring about anything but sowing seed across the veldt, so to speak. Of course, even if that is true true, we are a heck of a lot more complex than that, and altruism has evolved in our species. Still, I wonder if it is more prevelant among women. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 3:04 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: So you think altruism is odd? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism.There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
I wonder if altruism is more prevalent among women than men? It’s my impression that this list is pretty heavily loaded with dorky, geeky guys (speaking for myself :-). At least from an evolutionary standpoint, it seems that we XYs may have less to gain by caring about anything but sowing seed across the veldt, so to speak. Of course, even if that is true true, we are a heck of a lot more complex than that, and altruism has evolved in our species. Still, I wonder if it is more prevelant among women. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 3:04 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: So you think altruism is odd? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote: A. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism.There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz g...@naturesvisualarts.com wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff merlelefk...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/ -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Hi Marcus, and thanks, “4. Back to mechanism: If the above are correct, then any sub-system of the economy that depends on a bitcoin-like digital currency will be subject to the stresses that come from an inflexible-supply money such as gold, and those will need to be addressed somehow. “ Of course, Bitcoin is the biggest, but still just one of many existing or possible digital currencies (some of them having the properties of gold). Others, like NXT coin, reward holding the currency rather reward mining it. If creating these currencies means little more than creating a protocol and supporting code, and building a community around it, then different systems of governance can be built around the rules, including the ability to have it be a flexible money supply.In principle, trans-national economies could emerge, and they could gain more momentum than the official currencies of smaller nations. Yes, wonderful. The concepts of ecologies of monies, near-monies, and credit instruments. I would love to see a serious push toward a theory of economic dynamics, driven by the ability to create, and the need to understand, systems of this kind. I wonder (technically) what would be needed to see a productive direction into doing this scientifically well, and (societally/academically) what would be needed to draw a community to it capable of making some genuine headway. All best, Eric FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link
Eric writes: Wow, thanks for all that! “4. Back to mechanism: If the above are correct, then any sub-system of the economy that depends on a bitcoin-like digital currency will be subject to the stresses that come from an inflexible-supply money such as gold, and those will need to be addressed somehow. “ Of course, Bitcoin is the biggest, but still just one of many existing or possible digital currencies (some of them having the properties of gold). Others, like NXT coin, reward holding the currency rather reward mining it. If creating these currencies means little more than creating a protocol and supporting code, and building a community around it, then different systems of governance can be built around the rules, including the ability to have it be a flexible money supply.In principle, trans-national economies could emerge, and they could gain more momentum than the official currencies of smaller nations. Marcus FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com