Value
Understanding value is important to conceptualizing an economic system that best creates and distributes it. For the most part, the economics discipline has given up trying to figure out what exactly value is, why it is, and where it comes from. As a copout, value is defined in modern economics by one of its measures, economic profit. Marx focused a lot of his work on value and its different types, but most of it has been rejected since the objective/subjective debate. The collapse of the Soviet system gives further credence to argument that Marx was off the mark with his perspectives on use and exchange values. He did however provide a framework for thinking about economic value and its components, and when combined with a complexity perspective may help to solve the mystery of value. If one component can be objectively defined then it may open the door to figuring out the rest. The different forms of value (economic, numerical, moral, etc.) and their subcomponents probably all come from the same place.
In thinking about ways to create value, I’ve developed my own hypothesis of value. By following through with a thought experiment, I had to come up with a universe scale sort of complexity model. I’ll do my best to explain it. Nature converges on mathematical solutions through the process of evolution (itself a mathematical solution), and we see the same structures and processes repeated throughout nature at varying scales. For examples, legs always come in pairs as odd numbers of legs are less than ideal for locomotion (Sapolsky). Systems are subsystems of other systems, the observable universe being the top end since we have no information about what, if anything, lies beyond. We may never know how it all began, but the theory that it’s expanding is pretty solid. Expansion is another term for growth, and something that’s growing suggests a non-equilibrium organic complex system. Growth requires energy and the vital clue can be found in the second law of thermodynamics – energy wants to dissipate. The observable universe is currently transitioning from a heterogeneous to a homogenous state. Dissipated energy fuels universe expansion, like food fuels our growth. In a symbiotic interdependent relationship, the trillions of bacteria that live in our stomachs help us to break down food energy into something we can use. Scale up a bit to humans and it’s likely we are engaged in the same digestive process. Our sun is dissipating energy through a chemical process and our planet catches and clumps some of that energy. Clumped energy needs to be dispersed because the universe is hungry and needs it to grow.
To understand value, the universe must be viewed in a complexity framework. Einstein among others believed the universe to be an organism. Whatever it is, we know it's expanding because everything is moving away from everything else. Expansion indicates growth, growth indicates an evolving organism, as growth=evolution. Although it's certainly many technological layers above us, there is no reason to not think of universe as a growing and evolving organism. Our own bodies are made up of lower technology organisms, we make up part of a larger organism. Our planet is an ever evolving organic system. It is part of the larger solar system, which is part of the milky way, which is part of a supercluster, and so on. To grow the universe requires energy. Dissipated energy fuels universe expansion. Concentrated energy must be dispersed to fuel expansion, hence the purpose of all systems is to disperse concentrated energy. Natural structures not are reinvented at every scale, in fact most systems are fractal layers. The same general system structures are repeated at varying levels of complexity and scale. We share the same genes for the structure for our circulatory system with trees. Our bodies communicate with lower systems (organs and cells within organs) with electrical impulses These impulses keep the varying levels of systems in synchronization for the ultimate purpose of food energy distribution. Without synchronization these systems will fail, hearts can't beat on time, etc. All systems in the universe must synchronize at some level to maintain the overall goal of dispersing energy for universe growth. That includes humans and our systems. Just as our brain communicates with subsystems by electrical impulses, larger systems must keep us in synch. We interpret this signal as value, both economic and moral. Are we being controlled by God? Sort of, but more in the way we have control over the functioning of our livers. I don't remember ever answering any of my liver cells' prayers, in fact they probably think of me as the wrathful God of the Old Testament. The complexity universe framework does allow for God, just as we are God to our cells, the earth and universe are our God. that fluctuate between 30-100mv for a person in the normal range. Depressed people are much lower, athletes and other focused types are much higher. Food entering our stomachs is concentrated energy and must be homogenized for greatest absorption and efficiency. This is accomplished with a combined of chemical acid and biological bacteria.
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