01 November 2009

More thoughts for this today

Thought 1: Money cannot motivate culture to solve the energy problem along lines that would remove money from the economy.

Cold fusion is on the verge of being a problem solved, and along with Black Light Power and 80% efficient radiant-energy panels will render the burning of fossil fuels redundant, and nuclear power too.

The problem is tax revenue. The technologies I have mentioned would likely, in combination, reduce demand for power plant energy considerably, which means for metered energy, which means massive loss of income for governments around the world, not to mention the rather powerful oil industry. A big headache for us all. Curing the world of its energy problems opens up a huge can of worms, unless energy stays metered and centralized. Our system was not designed to deal with this situation, with the solutions that are there waiting to be deployed. Clean, abundant energy for everyone is a pain in the buttocks for the current system.

We need a new system.

Thought 2: We are not ready for abundance, but it is coming just the same. We "know" money makes the world go round, that people are born greedy and lazy, and that the only way you get things done is by paying to get them done. Things have to make financial sense before they make sense, right? We have the tech and the know-how to alter the system dramatically for the better, but we can't. We have neither enough money (what a bummer) nor enough wisdom. So, we must ask ourselves and each other which of the things we are certain about -- like greed, scarcity, money and laziness -- are received wisdoms, or rest upon received wisdoms, and question them till we know.

Question all assumptions. We only have the one planet. Humans, love them or loath them, are fascinating. I think this fact alone makes us worth saving.

Thought 3: Can a money be designed that does not have a logical bond with scarcity, and which does not lead to it making virtually all "important" decisions? Could we automate money creation with some transaction tracking AI database software that monitored global economic activity and employment, removing money from and introducing it into the system as necessary? Imagine a totally secure, "no-notes-n-coins" currency, where all citizens had one account, where interest was unnecessary because no banking service would be necessary, where there was next to no overhead for storage. Then imagine only one tax, a sales tax on non-essentials, unavoidable and idiot proof. What would that be like? No more accountants and bankers for a start. Way smaller government and NO CENTRAL BANK. Crazy. But would it work?

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