Monetary to Meaning System: The Future of Your Time

The Monetary System

Sitting, listening carefully to my brilliant elderly professor in one of the MBA classes called “managerial economics”- as he explained the monetary system and how it works, I found myself glued to his thoughts.

In my mind, I wanted to understand swiftly the forces that drive or sustain the system. I discovered that all other factors are less relevant compared to those forces.

My calculus was, that every system runs on forces or drivers that keep them perpetually running, maybe infinitely. Understanding those forces gives you the wisdom on how to re-imagine it and maybe improve it (nothing is perfect).

Thus, the monetary system is driven by two forces — competition and scarcity. That was all I wanted to hear! Please note that this conclusion is based on my personal summary and understanding of the system.

In the monetary system, value is ascribed to anything based on how scarce it is, and the number of people that strive to get that thing. — Nosa Oghafua

Now, pause for a moment to reflect on the preceding statement. Your mind should be brimming with inquiries. Consider whether it’s accurate to say that nearly all resources at our disposal are genuinely scarce. Or perhaps, should we allocate some time to realize that the phrase “Monetary System” inherently includes the word “system”?

This implies, quite straightforwardly, that the monetary system is a human invention (pardon the emphasis, but it seems necessary). Haha! Just to be clear, I’m not challenging the system. Not at all! But, acknowledging that it’s a construct of human ingenuity suggests that we have the capacity to rethink, redesign, and enhance it.

The Meaning System

Beyond the monetary system, there’s a different mechanism that allows for the assignment of value to anything.

In the meaning system, value is ascribed to anything based on the meaning an individual or a group derives from it that produces value for everyone. -Nosa Oghafua

In the meaning system, people are paid to spend their time on something they derive meaning from and that produces value for everyone. For example, if someone finds fishing out unscrupulous people on Facebook as meaningful to them, since this produces value for everyone (i.e., security), there should be a system that pays them for that.

Another example is — some people find it meaningful mowing lawns and they don’t mind doing it for their neighbors. This also provides value for everyone (i.e., clean environment). They should be paid for this!

In the meaning system, your value is determined by the impact of your work on the lives of others.

This means — in this system, the mowing man could earn more than the creator of a social mobile app!

Organizing the world’s data- So what next?

As I think about the meaning system and how this could benefit everyone and not just the people who we recognize to create value in today’s monetary system, my first application goes to Google’s life work: organizing the world’s data.

Honestly, I am a huge fan of the guys at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway in Mountain View, they have changed the world! Google brought us to the consciousness that the information on the internet could be organized in an insanely cool way.

However, we started asking- what is next after organizing the world’s information: well, we feed the organized data to machines and continue to create great products! Maybe create human consciousness one day (haha!).

Interestingly, I brought you to this point because of the meaning system. As we organize the world’s information and feed them to machines — powering AI models, what’s next? I ask this question because this process will only continue to drive the monetary system, increasing competition and scarcity.

This is not bad in itself! But take some time to imagine a system where people who are interested in a specific topic, let’s say fluid dynamics- can spend time reading and researching information on the topic online. And because they find meaning in doing that, which also provides value for everyone (i.e., they share their observation in an open repository), they should be paid or rewarded for that.

YouTube is another good example! Today on YouTube, the revenue that comes from ads is split between creators and YouTube (the company). The reason this is happening is because of the way we ascribe value via the monetary system- scarcity and competition.

Aside from YouTube (the company) and the creators, the viewers should be a part of that revenue split. The only reason we think of the viewers as people who spend their time to pay for the product — is because we do not consider the time they spent on those content — valuable (this is a product of the monetary system).

The meaning system allows you to create and monetize things based on the value it provides to others — aside from shareholders or the recognized value creators.

Play to Earn: A model in disguise

It is amazing how everything we need to create what we call the future already exist today.

Let’s look at the play to earn model: a player for example plays a game and as valuable items are unlocked in the game, the player earns tokens which can be redeemed as fiat money based on certain conditions.

Notice that in the game, the tokens the player unlock is agreed to be valuable by everyone. As you spend your time trying to unlock tokens, because you enjoy it and other gamers find it valuable, you earn money. Here, money is valuable but not scarce (I know what you are thinking, “You didn’t take economics class, don’t you know scarcity is what makes anything valuable?”). in the system I am referring to, money’s value is not based on scarcity and competition.

Learn to earn: Re:imagining Time Monetization

What if people are given tokens either in a centralized or decentralized platform for tasks they complete. Going back to the Google’s analogy - if someone for example looks for content on Google, they get a token. This token has an equivalent fiat money value, and based on the gamified system built by Google’s smart strategists, people are told the conditions with which they can redeem their fiat money.

Google’s users (i.e., people that search for information) are paid because without the users, the content creator would not be successful, and Google could not exist. Imagine a system where we enable people to focus on creating value for all!

All the best!