[ExI] Bottom-up currencies

[Richard Loosemore]

Money is a concept that *emerges* from a complex system.  It is a 
combination of:

(a) What most people believe it is, and

(b) What various powerful actors (i.e. governments and market 
speculators) force it to be.

The mistake, I think, is for people to get confused about the second of 
these, and to think that if governments all decide to, say, adopt the 
gold standard, that therefore that IS what money is.

In truth, the second factor (governments + market speculators) is really 
only a particularly big and heavy group of "people", who happen to 
believe a particular thing.

Conclusion:  trying to argue about what money "really" is, or what it 
"really ought to be" is somewhat nonsensical, since it emerges as a 
result of beliefs and interactions of a complex nature.




Richard Loosemore