How to Achieve a Free Accessible Stable Economic Common Value Representation

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  • Article: How to Achieve a Free Accessible Stable Economic Common Value Representation for All Agents and All Transactions. By Marc Gauvin.


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"The first step is to recognise that proper stable economic representation of value is fundamental and imperative for the health of any society and economy. The current (de facto) standard for such value representation, is of course money as it is currently understood, conceived and subsequently implemented and managed. However and perhaps more than ever in history the current common core conceptual model of money has come under fire. This is not new, but it has become a hot topic today with a myriad of initiatives and proposals for monetary reform, alternative currency, crypto currencies etc.

Our work in this area at www.bibocurrency.com, is focussed on how to specify such value representation as an information system that on the one hand can satisfy the stringent technical requirements for stability as dictated by standard control system theory for discrete Linear Time Invariant systems and on the other hand, be useful to satisfy the principle function of "liquidity" or "value measure" for all and any economic agent, necessary to overcome the limitations of barter or as I like to say, trade a piece of my house for an ice cream.

The second more difficult step, is overcoming the profound and deeply ingrained logical misconceptions about what money is and does and the subsequent emotional ties, dependencies and even addictions that keep it encrusted as a pseudo rational construct in our minds. Few are aware that the very definition of money commonly adopted is logically inconsistent, confused and rationally untenable and fewer even bother to question it. Our current common and operative notion of money is simply assumed or historically adopted without question and then we go about trying to best manage it as if that definition were dictated or imposed by some natural phenomenon yet to be understood but nonetheless obligatory. However and by applying strict logical definitions such as those used in formal description logic, we quickly realise how absurd the common "industry standard" definition is and how that very definition undermines the very sine qua non function of measure that money must perform! In the process, we also discover how in strict mathematical and engineering terms we can define money so that it can funciton as a useful and dependable common standard of stable measure and record of value. So the principle hurdle, is anchoring the science of money in a realm of well established, sophisticated and mature control and IT practice and theory and then communicating the results in spite of the current absurd and generally unquestioned notion of money. The key to success in this step, is maintaining rigour in a scientific discourse within the context of well established control theory and practice as a common objective back drop and presently not being exploited in current finance and economic theory. This is good news because discussion can be objective but it is also vulnerable because although simple, control theory is nonetheless a subtle domain, for example to he uninitiated it is not intuitive to to distinguish between a stable system, a stabilised system, controllable and uncontrollable systems and most importantly the functional scope of a system i.e. what domain is a particular system logically relevant. With respect to this last observation the following step three below is an example, where it becomes clear that it makes little sense to limit the scope of social governance to the operation of value measure function the latter becoming auxiliary to the former, confusing these two functions undermines both.

The third step is reforming social governance, which seems overwhelming but really is not so much so, if the previous step has been successful. The reason being that it already exists in a useful form and its present dysfunction is precisely due to how our current illogical notion of money tends to skew and corrupt everything. Thus,

replacing that erred notion of money with a truly coherent one and

making money auxiliary to social governance, can only improve and enable these governance structures as well as distribute them as required. But the challenge is still significant because when "money" has been reduced to its mere and mundane function of measure, no longer a prize or artifice of power, it no longer becomes the simplistic and reductionist tool for decision making that we have become accustomed to, far more options are possible and a far more profound notion of social responsibility and awareness is required from all agents in all domains, note I refrain form using the word "levels" because most of the hierarchies we take for granted today I expect would disappear (without need of impoverishing anyone). This means that where before, an individual's notion of what is and isn't possible and hence how one is to live one's life, was largely hacked by standard finance "control" and thus artificially delimited and simplified, now free of such artificial restraints, one's idea of what is possible would become predicated on a far more sophisticated, autonomous and integral relationship with one's environment and social context requiring far greater levels of responsibility, awareness and true practical knowledge than before. The challenge of course is two fold, on the one hand there is the fear of loss of a familiar and habitual sense of "control" and on the other hand resistance generated in anticipation of such evolution on the part of those who have learned how to gain personal benefit from hierarchies within the status quo and thus may feel threatened by the prospect of any change in perceived privilege, social status etc. Since many such individuals are powerful in today's world, occupy key functional roles in government, industry, judiciary, academia and finance, this step is impossible without first succeeding in step two and having the results of that step well disseminated and assimiliated throughout society.

In any event this issue cannot be ignored as it is evident to all that the current state of affairs regarding the institution of money is simply not sustainable making imminent change imperative and whatever proposals made will undergo the scrutiny of the type of knowledge already distributed throughout the world's intelligentsia that is far broader than the apparent beneficiaries of the current status quo. So although correct change is a tall task for sure, it is doable and what is more important it would seem to be imperative as we cannot in good conscience, pretend to not know what we already know and where just use of that knowledge can leads us, in this case away from tyranny and misery towards a more enriched, enlightened and meaningful existence for all."