The importance of trade and what we ambiguously call “money” demonstrates a simple fact: humans are natural cooperators. Evolutionarily, this is no surprise. Agents gain more if they manage to coordinate on mutual contribution than if they act alone. Any subset of a population that succeeds in coordinating on such cooperation will tend to outcompete […]
cooperation
Language and human uniqueness
Paleoanthropology, the study of ancient humans, continually revises our understanding of what makes Homo sapiens unique. Initially, the faculty of ‘language’ was thought to be exclusive to modern humans. This view expanded to include Neanderthals as new evidence came to light. Now, even Homo erectus, our ancient ancestor, is considered to have had this capacity. […]
The Platonic case for Bitcoin
The basic idea of digital money is that digits can represent economic value. This value can be transferred by means of an accounting ledger. For example, ledger A might include: Alice = 0001, Bob = 0000 … Alice = 0000, Bob = 0001 Here, 1 unit of value has been transferred from Alice to Bob. […]
Countries Do Not Exist
I hate to break it to you, but [insert the name of your country] does not actually exist. Basically, it doesn’t make any sense that something a group of people decide to imagine ‘exists’. If a group of children gets together to play doctors, why is their hospital not real but that of adult people […]