Most people take money for granted, rarely contemplating its deeper essence. Yet money is no superficial artifact. Rather, it emerges from the very fabric of being human. Money is not mere metal or paper. Money is a technology for channeling human attention and coordinating economic action. It is the mechanism by which we turn our desires into reality. The Essence of Attention Attention is the universal ingredient behind all human endeavor. Nothing gets done without someone paying attention to it. Collaboration multiplies attention across individuals and time, enabling greater achievements. Attention comprises the expenditure of time and energy. It flows according to the twin poles of desire and satisfaction. Unfulfilled desires compel attention, while satisfaction repels it. As social creatures, humans exist in an endless exchange of attention. This exchange underpins the entire economic process. The Communications System Called Price In economics, supply represents the attention allocated to satisfy demand. Demand measures the intensity of desires seeking fulfillment. The dance between supply and demand traces out prices. Prices are the central nervous system coordinating the market. By expressing exchange ratios in abstract monetary units, prices channel attention with supreme efficiency. Money allows countless relative valuations to be compressed into simple price signals. Like neurons firing in a brain, prices transmit signals that dictate actions. Their communications streamline the giving and receiving of attention between producers and consumers. In this manner, money coordinates the allocation of attention across the global marketplace. A More Honest Money While invaluable, not all forms of money are created equal. Money that loses value over time distorts the clarity of price signals, garbling the communication. This results in misallocated attention and hampered coordination. A money with a fixed supply, unaffected by manipulation or instability, offers a reliable channel for prices and attention. By filtering out monetary noise, such a money enhances coordination and aids the satisfaction of demands. Perhaps for the first time in history, technology has birthed a money immune to debasement and endowed with perfect scarcity. One optimally engineered to integrate civilization through the allocation of attention and channeling of action. The journey to honest money is only beginning. However winding the path, society progresses when it channels attention towards fulfilling its wants, not distorting them. For desire ever seeks its complement in satisfaction. Sources Robert Breedlove IMF UM Reserve Bank of Australia Also published . here
