Our Culture: Investing in Money

I believe there is such a thing as a perfect economy. This would be an economy running smoothly enough to be incapable of further growth, and not inclined to diminish.

A perfect economy implies that there be full market share of all businesses, especially banks. Banks are particularly important, because they fund new ideas (represented by entrepreneurs), and a full market share in this area implies no new ideas are currently available.

Full market share for businesses also means that business operations are sustainable. This means, among other things, that profits come from robust, sustainable growth. By robust, here, I mean that profits come from genuine market share, and not from, for instance, slashing costs and burning through third-world labor. Such cost-cutting techniques do not produce robust nor sustainable profits. Robust growth comes from opening new markets and increasing shares in old markets.

Now what I'm saying basically rests on what I consider to be a robust assumption: that it is possible to gain a maximum market share. I think not only that this is possible, but also that a lot of companies have already achieved this given today's economy.

Another implication has to do with the value of money. Money, itself being a commodity, also has a maximum share of market. It also must be managed in sustainable ways promoting robust growth. This sustainable growth responsibility lies with all of us, from ordinary consumers to Exxon-Mobil.But this is not to say that we need to be overly concerned with income inequality. Barking about income inequality is largely barking up the wrong tree, because the nature of new ideas is that they tend to concentrate wealth for their creators. However, if income inequality is produced by burning through labor resources by exploiting the poor, your wealth is not robust. I can handle inequality, provided the poor are not exploited. Inequality must be based on the production of new, valuable ideas.

Now all this is not to say that infinite growth is impossible, or that society must be stratified between rich and poor. On the contrary, infinite growth is definitely possible, but it must be robust, and rooted in such things as the continued evolution of the human mind and body, not in exciting, new opportunities, of which there are probably a finite number at any given moment. As for stratification, there will always be motion in markets, which implies liquidity in assets, including human ones. And anyway, I think we owe it to ourselves as human beings to offer the opportunity to all of us to live either simply or complexly, as we choose.

A Few Thoughts on Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a very interesting and complex phenomenon. It is having trouble gaining ground, but that is not because of problems inherent in the system, but rather because money is a complex and difficult subject which is hard to understand. I am a firm believer in the value of bitcoins, and am very excited about the phenomenon. I can't wait to get involved, and I intend to get involved. But the main obstacle to people getting involved in bitcoin is that people don't see its value because they don't understand it. This is because money itself is hard to understand.

Money is not a medium of exchange. It's more complex than that. Imagine a circle. The circle represents value. You can cut the circle up like a pie, and each section of the pie represents some kind of value. The angle of the cuts represents the current measure of which we value that value at the moment, and the points on the circumference of the circle represent the actual commodity which we value. The circle is a perfect circle, undistorted. The circle is what I would call a coin. If you have a circle of a large size, it means that you can fit more points on the circumference, and therefore buy more things. If it's smaller, you can buy less things. This is the definition of money.

Notice that it is a unit of value, in all the complexity of the term. It is not, and I repeat, it is NOT a medium of exchange. Here is what a medium of exchange is. Suppose I pick a few pieces from the circumference of the circle — things that I value. But I don't value them as much as someone else might. And I happen to know of a person who does value these things, but this person has a certain set of things on the circumference of the circle which he doesn't value as much as I do. My circle is currently oblong, with a little bump on one end, and so is his. It just so happens that if we trade these inconvenient items we don't really want for each other, we will have more of what we want and less of what we don't want. Then the bumps on the circle will be more evened out and the situation more fair. This is a trade.

The coin itself is not a medium of exchange. If you really think about it, you'll notice that the coin is simply a measurement of the value of our society at the moment, including all the various things that we value. The coin, in the case of the example above, has lost a little bit of value because of the overabundance of things we don't want in the cases of two parties. The exchange itself has the function of increasing the value of all things involved, including the coin. It is the exchange, therefore, that gives value to the coin, not the coin that gives value to the exchange. In other words, the coin doesn't mediate the exchange, cutting costs and increasing value. If the coin did that, it would increase the value of the exchange, and be a true medium for the exchange. But instead, the coin is one of the things benefited by the exchange. Therefore it cannot mediate the exchange.

The reason why people say the coin is a medium of exchange is because dollars and coins are nice ad-hoc ways of mediating exchange. We can say, thing X is worth $10 per item, while thing Y is worth $5 per item, therefore it would be fair and even if you gave me two of Y for my one of X. But you don't need money to regulate an exchange like this. All you need is some placeholder to measure value. The placeholder measures the relative angles of the two pieces of pie cut into the coin for both things X and Y, but it is not the whole coin itself. It is closely related to the coin, because without the coin you wouldn't be able to cut pieces into it, but it is not the coin itself.

So what is the actual medium of exchange? It is all the things which allow a line to be drawn between one slice in the pie and another. The New York Stock Exchange as an institution is a medium of exchange. It mediates the exchange between things of value. That complex and difficult concept we call the "open market" or the "free market" is a medium of exchange. But neither of these things are actual money, though they do indeed have value.

What this all has to do with the bitcoin is this. The bitcoin is actual money, not a security or anything else, as some people claim. Bitcoin is currency. You can imagine a coin similar to the one I envisioned above representing the coin in relation to the bitcoin economy, with little pieces of the pie cut up for things that bitcoin holders / users value. And, the coin itself has value, just like money. So why should we use bitcoins instead of dollars? The answer is fairly simple, though I will explain in the next post. The actual thing coined into physical currency that we are using as money is different. Dollars are made of paper. Gold coins are made of gold. Bitcoins are made of data and algorithms.

These physical / pseudophysical substances have inherent differences, which mean each one is better at certain things and worse at certain things in relation to each other. Bitcoin is better at certain things than the dollar is, and worse than certain things than the dollar is. Similar things can be said for every kind of thing that is used as currency. The reason why certain kinds of people should start using bitcoins is because the constellation of value relationships of the coinage itself for bitcoin happens to be inherently better suited to skilled artisans, shopkeepers, small business owners, etc. which make up the real substance of the middle class, whereas the constellation of value relationships of the coinage for the dollar is better suited for the upper and lower classes. I will outline what I believe to be the main differences in the following post.

The Era of Great Pain

It is possible that we are entering an era of great pain. This is an era where:

• Every concert is a "recreational activity."
• Every day of work is a "job."
• Every formal learning experience is an "education."
• Every animal is a "pet."
• Every blog post is "self-expression."
• Every tennis match is a "hobby."
• Every computer is a "computer."
• Every piece of food is "food."

Every hallelujah is cold and broken. Every experience is psychological. Every activity is a behavior. And every dissenter is "mentally ill."

Look. Concerts are NOT "recreational activities." They are LIFE. In short, everything is pain. And "living in the moment" has lost all meaning apart from forgetting everything, as though the phrase holds little more promise than recreational drug use.

Work is not a "job." It is LIFE.

Learning experiences are not "education." They are LIFE.

Animals are not "pets." They are LIFE.

Blog posts are not "self-expression." They are LIFE.

Tennis matches are not "hobbies." They are LIFE.

Computers are not "computers." They are LIFE.

Food is not "food." It is LIFE.

We cannot go on as though everything is meaningless. We simply can't continue as a species if everything is trivial and forgettable. NO. Every experience should be profound and meaningful. We MUST take every form of being, doing, experience, and so forth AS SERIOUSLY AS THOUGH OUR LIVES AND THE ETERNAL SALVATION OF OUR SOULS DEPENDED ON IT. When we feel upset, or when we need a little pick-me-up, we cannot simply say, "Recreational activities help pick me up. I should choose a recreational activity that will pick me up. I think I'll go to a concert."

I can't think of any more meaningless thing we could possibly ever think. It is absolutely cynical and wrong. We should NEVER think like that. We should go to a concert because it will ROCK OUR WORLD, or we shouldn't go at all. We should get a job because it will FUNDAMENTALLY IMPACT EVERYTHING, or we shouldn't get a job at all. We should eat food because it will ALLOW US TO COMPLETELY REJUVENATE THE WORLD, or we should eat red-hot balls of iron. There is no excuse. Either you're part of the solution, or you're part of the problem.

If you're part of the problem, you're part of the Great Pain. You'll do nothing but cause everyone around you great pain. If you can't enjoy life, GTFO.

The evil of the machine thrives on insecurity. We feel we have to be "hip enough to be square." But there is NOTHING that makes life more beautiful than insecurity. And if we can't recognize that, then we should demolish all the Universities. We should set fire to all the schools and libraries. We should forbid all scientific and academic inquiry. Because all it will do is make the human race more cynical, more painful, and more evil.

Science is for risk-takers. Knowledge is for risk-takers. Comfort is for risk-takers. Otherwise it is the purest form of curse. And I believe our society is currently cursing itself. I wish EVERYONE would take a moment to LIVE IN THE MOMENT—which, properly understood, means NOT forgetting everything, but THROWING AWAY scientific knowledge, security, money, food, computers, "recreational activities," "jobs," "education," as UTTERLY MEANINGLESS, and living completely in the state where it is possible that the world will DISAPPEAR. That everything you've trained for will DISAPPEAR. That everything you've worked for and earned will DISAPPEAR. And you should live the rest of your life that way.

Ironically, if you don't do that, it would be better if it DID disappear, because all it will cause is Great Pain.

Madonna's New Album

I don't know what happened to Madonna. I was just listening to tracks off her new album MDNA (probably the coolest album name I've heard in a long time, by the way) and it strikes me that she just doesn't get it. She doesn't get Rave music. Or worse: she's just trying to capitalize off it without adding anything.

I mean, don't get me wrong. It's not bad music. I'd rather listen to it than a lot of music out there. But it's just not great. And what gets me is, Madonna used to be great. Her song "Material Girl" is one of my favorite songs of all time. "Vogue"—same thing: positive message, edgy, complex, confidence-building, interesting, entertaining, etc. And her album, Erotica, is not only brilliant music, but brilliant literature. It's great poetry that can stand up to just about anyone in the English literary canon. And I should know: I've studied the stuff seriously.

But MDNA is just not that great. Same thing with the past several of her albums. MDNA features a couple cameos from an artist I really respect: M.I.A. The cameos were stupid and vapid. So how come I still respect M.I.A. but not Madonna? Because M.I.A. makes sense to me. I understand her. She is one of the few pop artists out there who can legitimately say "I just want to put a cap in your ass and take your money." A lot of artists claim they come from the ghetto and are bad boys or bad girls. But M.I.A. came from an INDIAN ghetto. She was a war refugee. Her father was a Tamil Tiger. When M.I.A. does a stupid collaboration (and she does a lot of them) it's not because she's stupid. It's because she's a gangsta popping a cap in the ass of the music industry and taking their money. She's a musical warlord. She makes sense.

But I don't get Madonna. Maybe there's something I'm missing. I feel somewhere along the line she lost it somehow. And I wish she would just find a way to do the brilliant, amazing music that I know she can do. Whether it's because of greed, or if she's in a dark place right now, I don't know. But I don't understand. I wish she would just... come back.

A Galaxy of Stars

One night Jacob was lying in bed with his elven lover, Lilly. After laying still for some time, Lilly said, "Look at the ceiling with your head cocked like this — the dark in the corner forms a triangle with the other two points on the ceiling. It's a natural occurrence. It's beautiful — like a star."

Jacob responded, "You're so... alive."

"So 'alive?'"

"I almost said 'human,' but that would've been species-centric. How do you come up with things like that anyway?"

"Like the triangle?"

"Like it being like a star."

"It's the same as everything else. Every commodity you make is another star in your universe."

"What about bad commodities, or derivative commodities?"

"Okay, correction. Every new commodity is another star."