Curve of Life

Curve Of Life: Efficiency vs Resilience

Professor and currency expert Bernard Lietaer (http://www.lietaer.com/) advocated an upgrade of our money systems as a systemic solution to our global economic, financial, and sustainability crisis.

One of the ideas he advocated is how every system in the world balances between efficiency and resilience. In nature, resilience is several times more important than efficiency.

Understanding parts of his work helps to explain how the world became what it is today. It's the result of a period where efficiency was everything. It gave us the fastest evolution ever achieved in only 100 years, but it's not sustainable. His findings can be applied to anything: nature, money, technology, society, and more.

A super-efficient system like a monoculture, such as pine wood, will not be very resilient. These types of forests are very susceptible to sickness and fire, while on the other hand, a mixed forest of trees is much more resilient but not so efficient.

Our money system is a monoculture; it's very efficient (money being created out of nothing) but also very vulnerable. There have been more than 600 monetary crashes since 1970. Most cryptocurrencies today are also monocultures and therefore unstable by design.

New systems are required for money and the internet, which live in the window of viability.