The Next Economic Paradigm

Tag: civilization

An Analog To Digital Converter For Knowledge Assets

Curiosumé is an analog to digital converter for knowledge assets.

The single most destructive characteristic of the Market Capitalism is the dependence on resources extracted from the Earth to fuel constant economic growth. Natural resources are finite while constant growth model is infinite.  There are several ways to manage this disparity; the first is to expire Capitalism, the second is to base that dependence on an infinite resource. Given the shortcomings of most viable alternatives to Capitalism, the latter is likely more plausible than the former.

Many perils to society that manifest today have their beginnings in the thesis by Adam Smith called “The Wealth of Nations”. In this document Mr. Smith outlines the conditions of Capitalism where a merchant class would arise to efficiently allocate land, labor, and capital in various combinations in order to produce all of the useful things that society needs. The working class would hold the system in balance; too much growth would result in a shortage of labor that would constrain capital through higher wages (supply and demand). Government would be hardly necessary in a self-balancing system. Ironically, A great deal of innovation has arisen from the prospect of eliminating labor, which allowed growth to continue beyond the natural constraint.

Karl Marx identified the inevitable situation of constant struggle between the working class and the merchant class. One group strived for greater wages while the other strived to lower wages. From this struggle arose a spectrum of adjustments ranging from labor unions and calculated government regulations (Socialism) all the way to full State allocation of public resources (Communism). Herein lies the dawn of geopolitics and competing ideology.

It is fairly easy to see from this short history where hierarchy, competition, politics, exploitation, environmental crisis, and monetary corruption are intimately related. Today, these elements are enshrined in our culture in B-schools, sports, warfare, education, 2-party representation, etc. The result is that people are forced to compete with each other for jobs, money, food, water, air, education, civil liberties, etc.

But it does not have to be this way. A relatively simple modification to the existing paradigm can realign the economic incentives, and therefore social priorities, from consumption to preservation of our planet without necessarily triggering a collapse and subsequent reboot.

Consider the proverbial “basket of goods” – an economic standard used in a variety of analyses including Relative Price Index, Forex, Gross Domestic Product, etc.  The basket of goods consists of unit quantities of tangibles such as food, housing, energy, transportation, etc.  Now consider the human knowledge required to produce that same basket of goods. One can easily imagine economic standards articulated as either the tangible basket of goods or the intangible basket of goods. Both have the same outcome.

Yet, knowledge is an infinite resource that can underwrite so many more dimensions of human existence than a select basket of goods.  The problem is that there is no accounting system for intangibles as there is for tangibles. There is a reason for this – it is called control. Therefore, to create an accounting system for knowledge assets is to take control of productivity and the currency that represents it.  That is the evolution we ought to focus on.

This is a much simpler challenge than trying to solve every problem that our civilization faces individually. This is a much easier problem to solve than trying to change the minds of entrenched ideologies. This is a much easier problem than changing all the laws and institutions that exist to make the old game as fair as it can ever possibly be.  In fact, the solutions for our most complex problems as a civilization are stunningly simple to create.

Did I mention that Curiosumé is an analog to digital converter for knowledge assets?

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How To Change Everything Without Changing Anything

Today, I am releasing an outline of the first of three sections of my upcoming book release called:

Hacking The Financial System; How To Change Everything Without Changing Anything.  

This book will be a step-by-step instruction manual for correcting the relatively tiny flaw in Market Capitalism that is driving civilization into an unsustainable future.  All the tools that we need to correct this flaw (and consequently most of our planet’s most pressing problems) exist today and are readily available to everyone.   Does it sound too good to be true?  There is a hitch:

It is easier done than said.

For example: it was not until human civilization was “ready” to realize that the Sun was the center of their universe, and not the Earth, were we able to access all of the science and technology that resulted from that profound knowledge.  Yet all the facts were clear and present to humanity for millions of years prior.

The same may be true for the next economic paradigm, as I will describe in this book.  All the fact are clear and present today, it is only our ability to shift a simple observation that will determine the advent of a sustainable future that seems so daunting today.  I am confident, with reservations, that we can do it.

I would appreciate your feedback

Please find the table of contents below for the first section of the book. Section 2 and 3 will be posted later.  The appendix will have case studies of how we are deploying The Value Game in the Construction, Aviation, software development, and Philanthropic industries.  I hope that these early demonstrations will help the entrepreneurs among us realize that there may be an alternate business method that is, in a very tangible way,  vastly profitable.

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Find PDF link below:

Hacking The Financial System:

How to Change Everything Without Changing Anything

Table of Contents

 

Preface

Introduction

Factors of Production

Part 1: Hacking The Financial System

Part 2: The Accounting System Hack

Part 3: The Institution Hack

Part 4: The Wall Street Hack

Part 5: The Currency Hack

Part 6: Evading The Antigen

Conclusion

Next Whitepaper: How everything changes

Final Whitepaper: How Nothing Changes

Appendix: Progress to date

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A Tale As Old As Time

by animeartist67

Nothing grabs people’s attention these days like a discussion about the future of money.  Yet few subjects diverge as wildly. The stakes are high since personal and political fortunes are cast against the ideals of what money is, what it has been, and what it will become.  The temptation to cast the future of money in one’s own image is a tale as old as time and likely the source of most social conflict.

The Future of Time

There are two futures of money being foretold today. One is predicated on the demise of Capitalism and persistent denial that scarcity is a real economic element, despite the obvious scarcity of time in one’s life, for instance. The other future seeks to correct the flaw in Market Capitalism so that one’s scarce time may become more equitably allocated and less easily exploited by others.  Social values such as freedom, liberty, family, community, trust, health and welfare are derived from how one is allowed to prioritizes their own time, not how one is able to prioritizes the time of others.

The United States of Mind

The reason why this distinction is important is that no great economic paradigm of human civilization ever came about as a result of wholesale collapse of the prior economic paradigm. Rather, each new state of human social organization was derived from the prior state through an integration of tools created in that prior state.

It is now time to take account of these tools and figure out how to integrate them correctly.  This is the only way to foresee where we need to go and how we can get there.  The only way to defeat gravity is to understand gravity. The work will be difficult, it will be scientific, it will be intellectually challenging, and it will be inclusive of all living systems – including those that we seek to change. The trick to the future of money business will be to cure the disease without killing the patient.

Unfortunately, we may not have much time

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Social Currency Hedges Financial Currency

I have yet to see anyone of any importance in the social-media-guru-camp who has identified the inherent dichotomy between social currency and financial currency that rages all around us.  No, seriously; every financial action is balanced by an equal and opposite social reaction.  It’s a balance sheet of the balance sheets.

BP underestimated the social liability of their financial decisions by a factor of 100,000:1.  US Corporations underestimated the social liabilities of outsourcing the knowledge economy by a factor of 1000:1,  US Government underestimated the social liabilities of Wall Street Bankers by, likely, 1000:1. Tiger Woods underestimated his social indiscretion by a similar ratio; 10,000:10.  Mel Gibson is trending hard on Twitter this week….etc.

I received the following press release today from “Professor Guru” at a famous US University:

US CITY, July 2 – despite a slight drop in the national unemployment rate, the situation is still grim for millions of Americans and thousands of businesses, many of whom fear double-dip recession.  Beyond the numbers are some under reported aspects of the current situation: the toll it takes on employee morale and how it forces companies to manage downsizing in a manner that maintains their reputation, avoids embittering their terminated employees and keeps their remaining employees engaged.

Astonishing Omission:

Nowhere does this statement address a notion that for every dollar of financial currency saved, X amount of social capital will be lost. This is an astonishing omission of statement and purpose.  All the social currency is well-accounted for with guru code speak like: “grim”, “takes a toll”, “morale”, “reputation”, “embitterment”, “terminated”, and “engaged”.  And, all the financial currency verbiage is accounted for with pop-terms like: “double dip-recession”, “under-reported aspect”, “the numbers”, “downsizing”, “remaining employees (assets)”, etc.  The call to action statement, of course, is that the situation “Forces Companies to manage….” or, to act in some new way that will,… uhmmm, well,….. what is it? ….minimize, balance, exploit, empower, update the Facebook page….what?.

Really, it’s time to get real:

Nobody is willing to say that for every dollar of financial capital saved, X amount of Social Capital is Lost.  Obviously, nobody in their right mind would say that social currency is acting as a hedge on financial currency.  Nobody has the guts to say that to cultivate social currency is to gain financial currency.  Nobody is willing to acknowledge that if there are riots in the streets of America, the US currency will crash.  Certainly no politician is willing to admit that it does not matter if that happens, it only matters “when” that happens.

Turning point of civilization

We are at an extremely important phase in World History.  Will social media provide the fabric that society has lost from the domination of financial morality on social priorities?   If so, then then keep your eyes on the ideas of a social currency conversion factor to drive Social Capitalism as a replacement for Market Capitalism.

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The Value of Social Currency

How big is this opportunity?

Roughly 10% of the US gross Domestic Product can be attributed directly to the process of evaluating or examining transactions.  This represents a 1.4 Trillion Dollar of value in a system that may be better organized, captured, and preserved through social networks and the conversations that they produce.

Social vetting on a scale that would allow social networks to monetize would require that communities organize their knowledge assets specifically for deployment to a market.  All that an entrepreneur needs to do is fill this need.

What happens if they don’t?

The true cost of vetting may be calculated by what happens in the absence of oversight, transparency, and disclosure. When the vetting process fails, so too does the industry.  The continuing financial crisis of 2008 was fueled by a failure to regulate mortgage backed securities.  The financial Crisis of 2002 arose from a failed accounting (CPA) profession.

The losses due to the absence of vetting mechanism exceeds by many times the cost of having a system in place.  The financial crises of 2002 and 2008 have together wiped out nearly 20 Trillion dollars of value and incurred high volatility to financial systems due to failed vetting mechanisms.   The people who held the knowledge about the impending doom had no effective medium to share.

Who vets KNOWLEDGE assets?

The flow of money lives and dies by the vetting mechanism.  CarFax, Experian, Ebay, Google owe their existence to the ability to vet information – However, they do not vet knowledge.  The ability to deliver the right knowledge asset to the right place, at the right time for the right price is tantamount to being able to “manufacturing innovation”, that is, to print money.  Inversely, the ability to foresee the result of specific knowledge assets deployed to specific business conditions is the Holy Grail of entrepreneurs.

Social networks can carry out this very important function of the Innovation economy; organize, locate, and develop knowledge assets in a form which can emulate a financial instrument.

How are things changing?

Emerging ideas such as conversational currency, relationship economics, innovation economics,. nd new ways to value intangibles are appearing in research blogs across the web.  Disruptions to Global finance, environmental policy, and the emergence of global currencies are setting the stage for a huge transformation in how society organizes itself.  Traditional industries such as print media, advertising, and banking are failing. Nothing is sacred except change.

Where are these communities, and what do they want?

Many communities exist today in a variety of forms and functions such as communities of practice, fellowships, service organizations, professional societies, trades groups, affinity groups, etc.  Increasingly they are moving to Social Media such as Facebook groups, Linkedin groups, Affinity groups, aggregation groups, and political action groups.  Communities are using social media technology to engage the knowledge domain contained within them.

As such, they will soon have ability to foresee the result of specific knowledge assets deployed to specific business conditions.  This is the Holy Grail of modern civilization.

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Out of Cache; Will Work For Bandwidth

We can measure the time in minutes, we can measure distance in miles, and we can measure mass in grams – so how do we measure Innovation?  Am I missing something or is this possibly the most stunning omission in the history of civilization?  Who is keeping score? Where’s the referee? This is serious business, folks – the fact, factors, and factories of innovation should be in laser sharp focus to everyone right now, here is why:

The total US liability is estimated at 53 trillion dollars. Every US citizen must become more productive by $175,000 each to cover the invisible mortgage.   Government and corporations are not going to fix this problem – they will leave it to the kids to figure out how to make, mix, and measure innovation.

Natural Resources of Bandwidth

It is official; the United States has run out of bandwidth and we need to create more. The only way to accomplish this is an extraordinary expansion in the breadth, depth, and scale of innovation. This is a situation that cannot be rationalized by any conventional school of thought – starting with our definition for innovation.

The accepted definition for innovation is “something novel and useful”. I hope that I am not insulting any B-school professors or innovation guru’s but “something novel and useful” is already bankrupt as a definition for the only thing that can pull us out of this flaming tailspin of debt economics.

So let’s try something that the kids can do well (because they get to pick up the tab):

Innovation = Bandwidth Created / Bandwidth Expended

So there it is: a simple, clean, and effective:  If the number is greater than 1 we have a creation of wealth. If the number is equal to 1 we have a transfer of wealth, if the number is less than 1 we have the creation of more debt.

It should not matter how one defines bandwidth as long as the top number and the bottom number are measured the same way. If the kids can increase the top number, or lower the bottom number for anything anywhere by using their social, creative, or intellectual ability, alone or in groups, then they can become successful innovators.

Business case

There is a clear and rational business case for bandwidth – people will pay for it at a price relative to their own available bandwidth. Let’s give the kids a game they can win.  Let’s give them a score that they can keep. Let’s show them how entrepreneurs work, think, and play.

For the same amount of bandwidth expended, they can create more bandwidth for 10 rich people or more bandwidth for 1000 poor people. Let the kids decide. If they give some people more bandwidth at the expense of the bandwidth of others, they lose.  If they find synergies that act as a bandwidth multiplier, they win. Let the kids figure it out.

All we need to do is help develop standards to measure bandwidth.

It’s the least that our old people can do and a much simpler problem for our feeble minds to solve.  The Ingenesist Project specifies 3 web applications which if deployed to social media will allow social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital to become tangible outside the construct of the traditional corporation – we believe that this may do the trick.  There may be others working on the problem too, we don’t care – at the end of the day, we all work for bandwidth.

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