Some brief thoughts on the biology of the Intention Economy and VRM... and how I think they connect to problems in scaling the human group.
First let me connect some terms to their roots in biology:
Intention: An idea with an objective ( "Light feels good" is an idea... "I want to move toward the light" is an intention.)
Decision: An intention with a related action (intention w/o action goes nowhere)
Economy: the metabolism of an organism (social or otherwise). It's quite literally the net sum of its decisions (i.e. objectives and their related actions), their interplay with the environment within which they take place... and how that then feeds back to their objectives... survival being the first and foremost.*
* Later I'll explain why I believe scale suggests that essentials (like food, shelter, water) cannot be easily or simplistically mixed with non-essentials in economic models)
These three definitions have universal application. In other words we can talk about the intentions, decisions and economy of a paramecium or a herd of buffalo*... or a group of hunter-gatherers... all without any reference to money.
In other words: Life IS the Intention Economy.
* Intention in this context has nothing to do with any particular level of intellect... but simply refers to an organism with multiple options for response... and in fact can be seen as a definition for life itself.
The issue I'm addressing is why the collective decision process ( the vector resulting out of individual decisions) for a herd of hundred buffalo doesn't differ substantially from that of a million buffalo... but the decision process for a group of hundred people is not at all similar to the decision process for a nation of a hundred million... and how that effects its collective decision process... and the result.
This brings us to the idea of Dunbar's number... a hypothetical number referring to cognitive limits which curtail the number of meaningful relationships for a social organism... in this case humans. This is what the altruism dilemma is all about... its a recognition that the in-group vs out-group demarcation is fuzzy. (A plumber cheating a customer... and Hitler building gas chambers might be seen to represent the breadth of the altruism dilemma).
Now we come to money!
Money is a technology for establishing 'chains-of-decision'.
It is NOT the economy...(would someone please tell this to the economists!)... but a tool for enabling the creation of these chains-of-decision within a social/geographic landscape larger than the "Dunbar" limited landscape.
However money is not a perfect mechanism... and can never be... neither in its creation nor in its operation. The same is and will be true of the micropayment. But more on that later.
VRM is a recognition of the centrality of intention... and the importance of the design of the landscape for its _expression_.
I believe the issue extends well beyond the net and shopping online. From my perspective everything from the crisis in the V.A. to the housing collapse... to the chaos in Syria all relate to a lack of feedback mechanisms to (and within) institutions (whether government or private) which allow problems to accumulate to the point of failure. (and failure can take many ugly forms)
ALL are related to the individual needing mechanisms... which convey intention and compel response from the institution.
I have no illusions that either the micropayment or any associated network by itself can fix that. But I believe both the transaction and its vehicle may be an essential element.
I'll try to suggest how that might work out next time. (not the mechanics... but how I believe it would actually be used and responded to... which, of course is only hypothetical.)
Prices, Costs and the Altruism Dilemma
Regards,
Tom Crowl