DeepMind just published a mind blowing paper: PathNet - Page 4 - OG Myth-Weavers

Notices


Worldly Talk

Civil discussion and debate on real world events and issues.


DeepMind just published a mind blowing paper: PathNet

 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Black_Valor View Post
Water is ubiquitous...

It isn't an infinite resource, but it is the most abundant resource in the entire visible universe.

Also, go three days without it, then come talk to me about waters value. Until then, your lack of understanding as to real and derived value versus fiat value is meaningless. You cannot live off money, I urge you to make a meal of coins and promissory notes if you believe that you can. If you can live three days with no water and only ingesting money, you'll be able to convince anyone that money is valuable. But remember, you may purposely ingest absolutely no water.

You may find this difficult as water is, ubiquitous.
That doesn't make it useful as a currency. I'm not saying that water isn't valuable. I am saying that I do not see any benefit to using it as a currency. Can you explain in what way using water as a currency would be beneficial?

The problem is that economic value is derived from demand and supply. Water simply has too great of a supply to be the foundation of any economic system. If it were not, then life would probably not exist in its current state. On the other hand, there were economies based upon grain thousands of years ago...

Potable water and water aren't the same thing. Potable water is sufficiently rare, divisible, fungible, identifiable, and of stable value, but it seems to be hard for the individual to transport and its primary value is in its use, not sitting in a pond. It is also too easily created and destroyed.

Be Bolivia 2014, have a water war.

The fact that people are willing to go to war over it demands further respect for its usefulness as an economic model. It is a substance that like land, which has a value as well, that can never diminish in value. Land is difficult to move elsewhere, but water is one of the easiest to store and transport.

As you said its easily created and destroyed. So unlike paper currency it doesn't cost anything to "print". Its not really easily created though, desalinization is incredibly inefficient, at least in the USA.

What you would be able to market, is not your countries supply and ability to produce oil. But the ability to supply and produce potable water.

I think most people have just been brainwashed by Keynesian economics long enough that a logical working solution that has actual inherent value just sounds preposterous.

For instance, why is a house worth more than the land its on? Yet of the two the land only ever increases in value.

Why is a loaf of healthy bread more expensive than a loaf of white bread, when it is less refined, less processed, and has less material in it? Seriously can someone answer that I dont actually know.

Our economic model is confused. Substance trumps content, except when it doesn't. Water is not a commodity, it is a precious resource. True it is not as rare as gold. But it is far more valuable.

Isn't the entire point of currency that it doesn't have inherent value? So that it has a more uniform value across local markets, can be more easily transported than (most) things with inherent value, and serves as a neutral middle ground for trading that doesn't rely on the specifics of a person's current needs?

All else is barter.

Another incentive to not base currency on physical goods is that advancing tech can make certain things much more easily obtainable. Look at what happened to aluminum.

Also, it's worth considering that 99% of the world's water is in an area currently defined by international law as freely shared. There'd be a new golden age of naval warfare if national wealth was suddenly determined by how much water one could control.

Also, I think we're sufficiently off-topic. Anyone have any more comments on the article? If not, I'm gonna close the thread by Monday.




 

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Last Database Backup 2024-03-28 03:20:27pm local time
Myth-Weavers Status