I have been looking for a philosophical and practical alternative to Capitalism for awhile now. I've been trying to feel my way into the axiomatic heart of Capitalism to figure out what exactly is "broken", and potentially, how to fix it.
I don't think I've found my answers yet. But I have been noodling on some interesting themes. I pulled my journal out this morning and happened upon something I wrote last month. I thought I'd share an excerpt:
(I'll jump in at the moment when I was trying to figure out what to optimize for, instead of optimizing for "profit", or "shareholder return", which is what we commonly assume Capitalism does...)
Optimize for Truth?
Optimize for Beauty?
Optimize for Joy?
Optimize for wealth? That makes no sense.
Optimize for sustainability? Not sufficient.
Optimize for sustainability with diversity? Not enough.
Optimize for sustainability of sustainable growth with diversity? Almost.
Optimize foe sustainability of growth-friendly diversity and diversity-friendly growth. And in the case of a tie, the tie-breaker is...the sign of the derivative.
There is math here. It relates to the same Active/Receptive algorithmic inverse model I've been chewing on. I need help from a mathematician.
This is what replaces capitalism. He who stewards growth and diversity best gets the most resources. Stewardship has to be sustainable management of resources with minimal externalization. One might wager that diversity would be built into the most successful models. That's what Nature did -- it created a kind of "maximum diversity" by maximizing the sustainable increase in entropy [every niche filled, catalyzing energy transformation...].
Does true sustainability require diversity? No -- but resilient sustainability does. Sustainability in the context of external disruptions. [of] What magnitude? How dramatic a shift in the environmental conditions [should be accommodated without massive failure]? Systems have to be allowed to grow. Businesses and species need to be allowed to fail and go extinct. What is the arbiter of successful evolution, or progress, or stewardship?
I guess if one is looking at the picture from maximum wide-angle, you'd have to go with Love. To the extent that you optimize around Love, you get the maximum return on resources at all levels because Love is the frequency of God.
Whoa. That's a lot of integration happening. I think I'd like a short break. How much of this did the ancients know? Did they know the MATH?
"Math - the Sorcerer's path to God."
So, there you have it - a peak under the hood of my...ummm...what would you call it? Any mathematicians out there want to help me out?
