Human societies coordinate through shared cognitive tools like language, mathematics, and money. These are social cognitive layers that help us interpret reality and make collective decisions across time. The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or linguistic relativity, suggests that the tools we use to describe and measure the world shape what we are able to perceive and prioritize. Money functions as one of these languages. It is the system that tells society what is scarce, what is valuable, and where effort should go.
When the monetary system works well, prices act as reliable signals of real scarcity, energy, labor, and resources. People can plan long term, invest in durable solutions, and compete by solving real problems. But when money loses fidelity, when its supply expands unpredictably or its value erodes, the measurement layer becomes distorted. The syntax of exchange still exists, but the semantics drift away from physical reality. Symbols continue to move, but they no longer point clearly to real value.
Once this happens, behavior adapts to the distorted signals. Goodhart’s Law appears, meaning that when a measurement becomes the target, people optimize the metric rather than the underlying reality. Companies optimize profits or growth metrics even when this damages product quality or ecosystems. Competition pushes firms toward cost cutting, planned obsolescence, resource extraction, and short-term survival strategies. Environmental degradation and engineered consumption then emerge not simply from greed but from systemic incentives driven by a broken measurement layer.
Through a biosemiotic lens, organisms respond to signs in their environment. For humans, money is one of the primary signals guiding action. If the signal system is corrupted, society metabolizes resources inefficiently. Culture, psychology, and identity adapt to distorted incentives, leading to short time horizons and a constant struggle to keep up with a changing unit of account.
The argument, then, is that restoring a high-fidelity monetary medium re-anchors economic coordination to physical constraints, such as scarcity and energy limits grounded in thermodynamics. A harder monetary system reconnects symbols to reality, allowing prices to again reflect real scarcity and effort. Long-term planning becomes rational, durability becomes competitive, and stewardship of resources aligns better with economic success.
Cultural and psychological habits do not change instantly, but evolution favors better signaling systems. As actors using higher-fidelity signals gain advantage, others adapt. The transition may be turbulent, since identities and institutions are built on the old system, but competition gradually selects for more accurate coordination tools.
At a deeper level, economics itself is converging with complexity science, network science, and information theory. Societies are being understood less as mechanical systems and more as adaptive systems governed by feedback, signals, and constraints. Money, in this view, is not neutral but part of the cognitive infrastructure of civilization. Choosing a better monetary layer is like choosing a better language or measurement tool. Evolution tends to retain tools that describe reality with higher fidelity.
So the core thesis is simple. Distorted measurement produces distorted behavior. Fix the measurement layer, and incentives, culture, and ecological outcomes gradually reorganize. Money reform alone does not solve every problem, but it changes the direction in which the entire system evolves, because human perception and action follow the signals embedded in the languages we use to coordinate reality.
https://youtu.be/6hHRtu8Y2sM?si=LBkVgctr8U4So4JH
When the monetary system works well, prices act as reliable signals of real scarcity, energy, labor, and resources. People can plan long term, invest in durable solutions, and compete by solving real problems. But when money loses fidelity, when its supply expands unpredictably or its value erodes, the measurement layer becomes distorted. The syntax of exchange still exists, but the semantics drift away from physical reality. Symbols continue to move, but they no longer point clearly to real value.
Once this happens, behavior adapts to the distorted signals. Goodhart’s Law appears, meaning that when a measurement becomes the target, people optimize the metric rather than the underlying reality. Companies optimize profits or growth metrics even when this damages product quality or ecosystems. Competition pushes firms toward cost cutting, planned obsolescence, resource extraction, and short-term survival strategies. Environmental degradation and engineered consumption then emerge not simply from greed but from systemic incentives driven by a broken measurement layer.
Through a biosemiotic lens, organisms respond to signs in their environment. For humans, money is one of the primary signals guiding action. If the signal system is corrupted, society metabolizes resources inefficiently. Culture, psychology, and identity adapt to distorted incentives, leading to short time horizons and a constant struggle to keep up with a changing unit of account.
The argument, then, is that restoring a high-fidelity monetary medium re-anchors economic coordination to physical constraints, such as scarcity and energy limits grounded in thermodynamics. A harder monetary system reconnects symbols to reality, allowing prices to again reflect real scarcity and effort. Long-term planning becomes rational, durability becomes competitive, and stewardship of resources aligns better with economic success.
Cultural and psychological habits do not change instantly, but evolution favors better signaling systems. As actors using higher-fidelity signals gain advantage, others adapt. The transition may be turbulent, since identities and institutions are built on the old system, but competition gradually selects for more accurate coordination tools.
At a deeper level, economics itself is converging with complexity science, network science, and information theory. Societies are being understood less as mechanical systems and more as adaptive systems governed by feedback, signals, and constraints. Money, in this view, is not neutral but part of the cognitive infrastructure of civilization. Choosing a better monetary layer is like choosing a better language or measurement tool. Evolution tends to retain tools that describe reality with higher fidelity.
So the core thesis is simple. Distorted measurement produces distorted behavior. Fix the measurement layer, and incentives, culture, and ecological outcomes gradually reorganize. Money reform alone does not solve every problem, but it changes the direction in which the entire system evolves, because human perception and action follow the signals embedded in the languages we use to coordinate reality.
https://youtu.be/6hHRtu8Y2sM?si=LBkVgctr8U4So4JH
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