So you think altruism is "odd"? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson <[email protected]> wrote:
> Ahhhh. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. > > > > It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, > species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] > altruism. There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow > for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And > people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way > between these two tendencies. > > > > N > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Merle > Lefkoff > *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > [email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link > > > > Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative > currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't > have a chance to recover otherwise. > > > > > > > > On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier > posts about Ecuador. > > The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global > failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some > outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of > alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy > completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in > Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. > > > > On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks > also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily > articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t > understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the > effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the > implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, > when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents > agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have > invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of > this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about > hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know > that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to > people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of > feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing > down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital > currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. > > > > Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of > weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims > that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars > (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own > digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital > currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the > dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the > software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has > the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here > <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa> > is one of many articles in English about this. > > > > On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff <[email protected]> > wrote: > > http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# > <http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/> > > > > -- > > Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. > Center for Emergent Diplomacy > Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA > > [email protected] > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > -- > > Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. > President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy > Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA > [email protected] > mobile: (303) 859-5609 > skype: merlelefkoff > > > > > -- > > Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. > President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy > Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA > [email protected] > mobile: (303) 859-5609 > skype: merlelefkoff > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA [email protected] mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff
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