[katieHaylor (OP)]

David says:


With the man-made concept of money causing so much damage to the planet in terms of the environment, natural habitat and the fastest extinction of animals, my question is :

What can science do to change the destructive nature money has on the planet? What would be the alternative where we, as humans, can in live in harmony without the destructive influence of greed, selfishness and Capitalism (money)?


What do you think?

[puppypower]

Money is an inanimate object. We can run science experiments to investigate the properties of money. What you will find is money does nothing on its own, but will forever remain in the pile, where you placed it, having no impact on anything in the lab. We can check back weeks later and still the money has not done anything. It is like any other inanimate object in the lab.

In the second part of the experiment, we will place animals in the room with the money. Some of the animals may investigate the pile of money, but will see no value and soon leave it alone. Some of the animals may use it as bedding and nesting material and sit on it. But the money still does nothing. It is passive.

Next, we will place humans in the room near the pile of money. Again, with the money still doing nothing but staying in the pile, some of the humans will begin to project unconscious content into the money. This will appear to make the money come alive in their imagination. The scientists ruining the experiments will still see the money do nothing. The money, is like a work of art, stimulating the human imagination and emotions. But this is due to conditioned response that the animals did not show. 

If we did away with money and culturally defined cheese or rocks for the same purpose as money, the same humans would animate that in their imagination. Your concern about money is really a concern about something in humans. The way you change the dynamics of money is to alter the unconsciousness in humans.

The main unconscious projection into money, is money can be a way to project self worth. Those who see the pile of money and start to project and imagine, will often see how that pile of inmate paper can make them worth more. Money is sort of like a woman's makeup, which can hide blemishes, and make her look prettier. However, a fool in his money is still a fool, even if he feels prettier and is pretty to shallow people who look no deeper.

Since a rich man can look pretty in the eyes of the shallow, but have no depth, he can make many mistakes acquiring and putting on his make up. This can impact the health of the earth. 

 

[unstman]

I take your point in that money, as an inanimate object, has no value whatsoever. However, despite this, we have created and put a value on it as a means of control and having the ability to have ' other objects ' which have been valued in proportion to the value of money.

However, this is not quite answering the question of ' the impact this man-made concept of money has had on the environment, natural habitat, extinction of species and life itself '?

Regardless to what object is used in giving value to something, it is the act of this concept and idea which is being questioned, and not the object used as the representative of this concept/idea.

It is very obvious such a concept is having a negative impact, and it is also very obvious we are prepared to do nothing about it. One could say we are conditioned to such a level of control, we do not see beyond the intrinsic value we put upon this concept, and where our actions and decision making is purely based on this.

Should we re-evaluate what price, excuse the pun, we put on this concept in comparison to the price we put on living in harmony with the planet and the rest of life on the planet? It is very obvious again, we put greater interest and priority upon our own needs, dictated by money, than we do on our environment, the habitat, life and the planet itself.   

Yes, there are many other factors to take into consideration, and one could question ' what is the alternative ? '. Afterall, like nature, there is always a pyramid of hierarchy.........although strictly speaking, this is not based on domination, selfishness, greed and a system which has no baring on the natural laws of survival, nature or the Universe.

In fact, this concept is completely disconnected from any natural phenomena, thus it should have no place in which to dictate natural conditioning.

One could argue, in favour, if it was not for money and the value we put upon it, science, technology, innovation and progress may not have happened at the speed in which it has. However, one could also question, it is because of the speed of progress which has caused many of the problems we face now. Is this because of money or is it because of other factors greater than the value we put on money?

It is at this point where science, technology, innovation and idea's can, hopefully, change to the point where we do not put value upon a system, money, which is detrimental to our survival and living in harmony within the boundaries of co-existing with life itself, instead of being an separate entity at the exclusion of life.

I do not have the answer, but it is very clear we need to change to a system which is more cohesive with the natural laws that govern our survival.

[chris]

change to the point where we do not put value upon a system, money, which is detrimental to our survival

But we don't put value exclusively on money though, do we? We value freedom, and health (although we effectively pay for those things ) and a host of other things.

I don't necessarily see money as a solely destructive influence, because if you can put a value on things then you can also put a cost on things. For instance, scientists can attribute a financial value to the role of pollinators.

Putting a value on things means that you can therefore also put a price on their loss. So if we lose our pollinators, then we'll be economically $400B poorer for it.

This has the virtue of turning something biological into something that even a banker can understand ().

So I'd say that money is a useful concept, and, as alluded above, even if you got rid of it then some other asset would fill the void. But your point is a good one - the relentless pursuit of wealth is definitely the undoing of humans on Earth. That and over-population.