Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
4people
2009–2023years
50% recommend25% neutral25% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self by Charles Eisenstein
- I think you're generally along the right lines. I can offer a different explanation. Most of my own thesis comes from reading Eisenstein's "Ascent of Humanity", though I've put a little of my spin on it.
The basis of civilization - the good and the bad - comes down to our concepts of money and property. I'm only going to speak of the bad here.
Money earns interest, hence if you have it you are compelled to hold on to it; as well, because it compounds, a quick cash grab may theoretically exceed the return of any sustainable venture.
Property, on the other hand, makes us seek to control our world so that others can't. It started with land, but it's spread to just about everything, including abstract concepts.
Most competitive forces can be attributed to this volatile combination.
But the entrepreneur's motives may differ from competition; instead of grabbing money and holding on to it, or taking other people's land, resourcefulness and efficiency is another goal, and it is usually the one that produces the most successful businesses.
What civilization has done is to use money and property as proxies for efficiency, which for the entrepreneur encourages all negative externalities, and for society as a whole causes a lot of deep rifts and strife.
But I think that, ultimately, technology - by increasingly giving power to all individuals - is going to make the money and property concepts irrelevant. It's already doing so online, albeit with a lot of friction because we have to use side-channels to translate online "currencies" (popularity, utility, reputation) into money.
- * "The Code Book" (1 mention, author not specified) * Summary: This book explores the history of codes and codebreaking. It traces the evolution of cryptography from ancient times to the digital age, detailing famous codebreakers, notorious codes, and the role of codes in wars and revolutions.
* "Warped Passages" (1 mention, author not specified) * Summary: This book guides readers through the world of particle physics and string theory. It discusses key theories, experiments, and concepts that have shaped our understanding of the fundamental structure of the universe.
* "A History of The Internet And the Digital Future" by Johnny Ryan (1 mention) * Summary: This book offers a comprehensive history of the internet and looks forward to its future. It traces the development of the internet, exploring its impact on society and speculating on potential future developments.
* "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu (1 mention) * Summary: The Master Switch looks at the history of information technologies like telephone, radio, television, and the Internet to see how their development was shaped by businesses and government. The book discusses the cycle of open to closed systems in the context of the Internet.
* "The Realities of Work: Experiencing Work and Employment in Contemporary Society" by Mike Noon and Paul Blyton (1 mention) * Summary: Examines the nature of work, the variety of different jobs, and the skills they require. This book highlights the changes in the structures and cultures of work and analyses their impact on the working lives of employees.
* "The Ascent of Humanity: Civilization and the Human Sense of Self" by Charles Eisenstein (1 mention) * Summary: This book explores the history and future of civilization from a unique perspective. It hypothesizes that human history is a story of the self's marginalization from nature and each other and proposes that mounting crises in the modern world will lead to an 'Age of Reunion' with a more connected sense of self.
* "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan (1 mention) * Summary: A guide to the universe beyond the Earth. Sagan explores the origins, scale, and future of the universe, offering insights into the nature of life and mankind's place in the cosmos. The book fosters an appreciation for the quest for knowledge for its own sake.
* "Women, fire, and dangerous things" by Lakoff (1 mention) * Summary: A scholarly book about human cognition and linguistic categorization. It posits that human categorization is not arbitrary, but is based on cognitive models that originate from physical, social, and mental experience. It argues against a classical categorization approach in favor of a prototype approach.
* "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (1 mention) * Summary: A series of philosophical reflections and exercises by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The book offers guidance and insights on matters such as resilience, rationality, morality, duty, and the temporal nature of human life, reflecting the Stoic philosophy that Aurelius practiced.
* "A History of the Internet and the Digital Future" by Johnny Ryan (1 mention) * Summary: This book offers a comprehensive history of the internet and speculates about its future. It discusses the various technological and social transformations that have accompanied the rise of the internet, as well as the implications these changes may have for the future.
* "The Master Switch" by Tim Wu (1 mention) * Summary: The book examines the history of information, communications and technology industries in the United States. Wu explores how the control of these industries has shifted from an open to a closed system, stifling innovation and threatening net neutrality.
- The ascent of humanity
Sorry, but Eisenstein's (the author of that book) ideas are bunk. He is just a guy on the net with opinions, which in itself is inoffensive. But they are terribly researched, economically laughable opinions, which he claims to back up with economic theories - and which therefore duly require debunking.
His main thesis is that "we should make interest negative" - as though the time value of money were some sort of law by fiat! We set interest rates, yes - but that's like putting a dam on a river. Making interest negative is like making laws that water must henceforth flow uphill.
He's also in cahoots with the Law of Attraction people (a slightly creepy new-age religious group), who use all sorts of pseudoscientific garbage to justify their existence. Quotes on Eisenstein's website by Bruce Lipton (among others) seriously call his credibility into question. (Bruce Lipton was a genuine biologist who fell off the rails in the early 90s and started writing a bunch of nonscientific mumbo jumbo about quantum theories of consciousness and evolution - published by Mountain of Love (!) publications).
Eisenstein uses similar techniques - pseudoeconomics instead of pseudoscience. I don't know if you're quoting him, but "money and property as proxies for efficiency" is absolute codswallop. (The phrase "proxy for efficiency" is, so far as I can tell, completely devoid of meaning. )
We use money because it is _more efficient_ than e.g. goats as a unit of economic value. Before money was called money, it was called gold (and the ancient Japanese used rare seashells, and prisoners use cigarettes).
Your final point is also incorrect - the possibility of monetizing the efficiencies gained through improved communication has driven the current wave of technology, not been replaced by it. Finally, technology absolutely does not give power to all individuals - at best, it confers advantages to those (often small) groups who adopt it.
Please help debunk people like Eisenstein. Let's be honest: economics is hairy enough as it is without people spreading that sort of twaddle.
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