We all know the single-dimensional signaling of Game A: Money. It’s a signaling system with no brakes, requiring exponential growth just to stay alive. But what happens when we replace that singular, amoral metric with a multidimensional economy designed for human thriving?
In this 10th session with Jim, we take a hammer to the “Molochian shit show” of finance and start sketching the blueprint for Game B economics.
Sourcing and the Bluefish Coin
Game A only “sees” what is denominated in money. It sees a hospital bill as “economic activity,” but it doesn’t see health. It sees overfishing as “profit,” but it doesn’t see the death of the bioregion.
Jim proposes a different modality: Sourcing Tokens. Imagine a bioregion that issues tokens for the sustainable harvest of bluefish. If you want to fish, you need a token. If you want to eat bluefish, you need a consumption token. These aren’t just currencies; they are “brakes” tied directly to the carrying capacity of the land. They are market forces made smart enough to respect the planet.
The Central Bank of Dreams
I pushed Jim on the “care economy”, the things like shamanism, art, and localized care that money can never properly value. I invoked my mentor Bernard Lietaer’s “Central Bank of Dreams.”
What if money wasn’t a claim on lost life, but a tool to fulfill the passion of our neighbors? Imagine a world where your “basic security” is provided by the community, not your bank account. In this world, a Porsche isn’t a status symbol; it’s a cry for help. The community wouldn’t laugh at you for owning it; they’d ask how they could help you so you didn’t need the Porsche to feel significant.
The Problem of the “Villager”
We hit a wall during this talk, a wall I’ve seen in my own software company: Everyone wants a village, but nobody wants to be a villager. Being a villager requires responsibility. It requires closing the loop on negative externalities. In Game A, we are programmed to “take” and disconnect. We want the cheeseburger, but we don’t want to see the cow. Game B economics is the process of closing those loops: making the producer “eat the dog food” they are creating. If you’re designing a sports-betting app that exploits your own neighbors, you might think twice.
The Great Repeal
The transition to a thriving Game B economy isn’t just about tokens; it’s about the Great Repeal. We have to dismantle the “push-button” alienation of late-stage Game A. We need to legalize composting toilets, rewrite zoning laws that forbid self-sufficiency, and move toward a “punctuated equilibrium” where our communities are prepared to absorb millions of people when the Game A debt bubble finally bursts.
This conversation was hazy, difficult, and exploratory. It shows how far we are from a perfect theory but it also shows that we are finally asking the right questions.
Let’s start building the bridge between the theory and the substrate.
