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> Richard Dawkins said in an offhand comment in The Selfish Gene that “Money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism.” - https://nakamotoinstitute.org/
by 7373737373 6y ago
> Richard Dawkins said in an offhand comment in The Selfish Gene that “Money is a formal token of delayed reciprocal altruism.” - https://nakamotoinstitute.org/reciprocal-altruism-in-the-theory-of-money/ https://nakamotoinstitute.org/reciprocal-altruism-in-the-the...
- dnautics 6y agoThis isn't too far off from the point that David graeber makes in debt: the first 5000 years
- kiliantics 6y agoI think this is a rosy-eyed view. Money is a formalised manifestation of debt, which previously was an informal system of reciprocity and altruism. But formalising this debt with financial and monetary systems destroyed the altruistic part of the arrangement. Graeber explains how money was created by states to enforce its authority and basically coerce people into participation. The anonymity of monetary debt and the fact that the system is controlled by the "powers that be" make it kind of the opposite of altruism.
- dnautics 6y agoI thought that "darkness" was slyly implied in the dawkins quote
- tim333 6y agoMaybe not in the quote above but the full Dawkins piece it was taken from is dark enough https://dizzynomics.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/money-as-a-form-of-delayed-reciprocal-altruism/ https://dizzynomics.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/money-as-a-form...
- 7373737373 6y agoStrongly reminds me of https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/
- seph-reed 6y agoThis is an amazingly refined definition.
- octocop 6y agoThanks for the link, really interesting stuff.