Money: Energy’s Fake Plastic Nose

Ford, Fuller… Altman? July 18, 2024 [WEBSITE]( | [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Henry Ford, Bucky Fuller… Sam Altman? Money: Energy’s Fake Plastic Nose By Chris Campbell CHRIS CAMPBELL Dear Reader, Back in the day, we used to trade seashells. Then some wizard came up with an idea: "Hey, what if we smash these shiny hard rocks until they're flat and shiny, then act as if they have the value we stamp on them?" And just like that, coins were born. Fast forward through a montage of kings, wars, and questionable fashion choices, and some horrible person thought, "You know what would make this better? If we made money out of dead trees!" Enter the era of paper money, where we all agreed that paper rectangles are worth something. Right now, we’re going through another shift. The bits of paper are dying. Numbers on a screen rules everything around me. By 2030, less than 1% of transactions will happen in cash. The question on everyone’s mind: What does the future of money look like? Compute as Currency According to OpenAI’s Sam Altman, the next big leap isn't JUST going to be some new form of digital cash… It's going to be compute power itself. See, Altman's betting on an explosion in demand for compute. We're talking levels hard to even imagine right now. It has little to do with running chatbots or rendering graphics, either. We're looking at simulating entire economies, revolutionizing scientific research, modeling the brain, stuff like that. In this world, compute is the limiting factor for future progress. More compute means smarter AI, better scientific models, faster breakthroughs. Let’s imagine Altman’s right: The economy is measured in compute. Could this be the holy grail of currency? Energy in Disguise Relatively long ago…. Buckminster Fuller and Henry Ford - both intellectual titans in their own rights - proposed a bold experiment: a currency directly tied to energy. Their argument: all forms of money are just proxies for energy usage. Whether it's human labor, fossil fuels, or electricity, currency allows us to: - Store Energy: Save our work for later use. - Transfer Energy: Trade our effort for someone else's. - Measure Energy: Quantify how much work something is worth. Thus, they concluded… ALL forms of currency, at their core, are ways of quantifying and trading energy… Currency, in other words, is energy in disguise - money is energy with a fake plastic nose. Congrats! $511 Credit Applied to Your Account As a valued member of Altucher Confidential, we’ve just awarded you a $511 credit to use on our premium research services. This credit is our way of saying thank you for being with us. [Click here to learn how to activate your $511 credit.]( **DISCLAIMER: Please note that this offer is limited to the first 1000 customers that take advantage today. [Go here to claim this credit now.]( Compute as Currency? While there's a relationship between computation and energy use, they are not identical. Computation involves processing information, which requires energy, but also depends on algorithms, hardware architecture, and other factors. BUT, Bitcoin aside (for now)... It’s the closest yet proposed to stripping off the disguise. As Fuller and Ford argued: By using a universal, objective measure of value, the system could eliminate abstractions that create distortions - intentional or not - in the global financial system. This, they said, would free us from the machinations of central banks and the military-industrial complex. Gold, in this case, is insufficient. Here’s the front page of the New York Tribune on Dec. 4, 1921. Onto something? Mint Your Own Energy The argument: an energy-based currency would make the value of energy production and consumption more transparent. People would be more aware of the energy costs associated with different products and services. Moreover, anyone who can produce energy efficiently could essentially "mint" money. In that case, the direct link between energy production and economic value would spur innovation in smaller-scale, high-efficiency energy technologies. Every backyard inventor and garage tinkerer would suddenly be on the front lines of the energy revolution. Decentralized production, among other things, would reduce the need for long-distance power transmission, making the overall system more efficient. As Fuller and Ford alluded: This would lead to a significant redistribution of power, away from those who control financial abstractions and towards those who can innovate in the realm of the real, the hard, the physical. (HMMM…) Here’s one thing we know: No matter what the future of money looks like - fake plastic noses or not: AI will have a role to play in this. Crypo, too. Especially when they make love and have babies. More on that tomorrow. Until then, Chris Campbell For Altucher Confidential Rate this email Like Dislike Thanks for rating this content! Looks like something went wrong. Please try to rate again. SELL-OFF WARNING The stock market is entering a cycle of HISTORIC manipulation. Prices have surged recently… But when this trend reverses – and trends always do… Millions of investors could be on the wrong side of a historic “pump-and-dump”. [Click Here To Learn What You Need To Do]( You Might be Interested in... [The Scourge of Higher Education]( [US Dollar making big Currency moves. Your move next. Play to win.]( [This ONE Stock is my Inflation-Beating Secret Weapon - Zach Scheidt]( ☰ ⊗ [ARCHIVE]( [ABOUT]( [Contact Us]( © 2024 Paradigm Press, LLC. 1001 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. By submitting your email address, you consent to Paradigm Press, LLC. delivering daily email issues and advertisements. To end your Altucher Confidential e-mail subscription and associated external offers sent from Altucher Confidential, feel free to [click here.]( Please note: the mailbox associated with this email address is not monitored, so do not reply to this message. We welcome comments or suggestions at feedback@altucherconfidential.com. This address is for feedback only. For questions about your account or to speak with customer service, [contact us here]( or call (844)-731-0984. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We allow the editors of our publications to recommend securities that they own themselves. However, our policy prohibits editors from exiting a personal trade while the recommendation to subscribers is open. In no circumstance may an editor sell a security before subscribers have a fair opportunity to exit. The length of time an editor must wait after subscribers have been advised to exit a play depends on the type of publication. All other employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of a printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended in this letter should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. Altucher Confidential is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. Please read our [Privacy Statement.]( If you are having trouble receiving your Altucher Confidential subscription, you can ensure its arrival in your mailbox by [whitelisting Altucher Confidential.](