Absolutely! In Prosperity Guilds there’s the idea of ‘value’, that is very broadly defined. An exchange of value can also be merely the satisfaction that you’ve helped someone else. Value becomes very interesting if you measure it against the full scale of human virtues. And then, yes, there’s also monetary value.
From a philosophical viewpoint Prosperity Guilds considers there are always hedonistic and/or other self-centered factors at play. Self-centeredness is not taken as a negative, just as a given. Something entirely natural.
Though this idea isn’t necessarily practical or measurable in any way, it is very useful nonetheless. It means that there is always a value exchange taking place in any human interaction. And now we can look at ways to maximise the mutual rewards that participants get from it. Which in turn leads to motivation for future exchanges.
Consider this, just as a random example…
- I’ve seen your work, and it fascinates me. Based on it I appreciate what you do.
- Can’t help you directly, but based on your interests I send you a small gift, nothing fancy.
- Upon receipt of this token of appreciation, you feel recognized for your work.
- You are thankful and show me your gratitude in response. I also earned a bit of trust.
- The gratitude makes me feel good. There’s satisfaction and deeper mutual appreciation than before.
- We are more likely to have positive interactions in the future.
Very basic stuff. Happens all the time. But in our hypercapitalist society the human value exchange is underappreciated. The system we have emphasizes wielding ones vices rather than virtues, as that ‘yields’ more in the short term. Seek the edges, and you’ll find ‘competitive advantage’, set the rules to your advantage.
Of course there’s much more to these ideas of mutualism and reciprocity, applying positive psychology. There are many ‘delayed’ value exchanges and having debit/credit not be balanced is actually a very good thing that instills trust, establishes trustworthiness. Hypercapitalism is an inherently distrust-first system. Going to trust-first maybe requires a leap of faith for many, but it is one well rewarded in terms of experiencing Humanity.
You are well-aware of this, of course. This is about point b).
Where it gets even more interesting for us techy-nerdy folks is how can you support this in the technology you offer? Starting with the awareness of where the value is, and the notion of virtues being emphasized, we have the ingredients to find synergies. This is another aspect where the idea of App Free Computing, moving beyond apps, is helpful. And instead I’d like to focus on Social experience design (SX). What do we want to get out of our social interactions? What Needs are fulfilled by them?
Oh, I should add that an ideal system is designed in such way that ‘foul players’ place themselves ‘out of the game’ in a natural way. They don’t need to be ostracized by explicit moderation and governance structures, that do not scale. If someone betrays trust, they just aren’t likely to have future beneficial interactions. They lose the rewards they get from being collaboratively wielding ones virtues.