This reminds me that great meals can be made from mixtures of ingredients that we wouldn't consider in advance because of our prejudices. I understand that AI "chefs" are now devising some recipes that are blowing minds... and everything being done with food today is limited by the ~200 crops out of ~2,000 known to be edible, because only those few handle, store, and ship well enough. This will change soon.

I also suggest that the SABAIR complementary currency, described in the book New Money for a New World, has much potential to enhance K - 12 educational outcomes without needing additional fiat money. I'll be pleased to outline its proposed operation here, if of interest.

I think that there needs to be a forum in which to discuss complementary currency topics. Since the deaths of Stephen Belgin and Bernard Lietaer in recent years, there really is no one "authority" on complementary currencies. The world needs one! In my view, a great place to start creating such would be with a combination of successful initiatives such as this one, Ithaca Bucks, etc., guided at a theoretical and historical level by the "great work" co-authored by Belgin and Lietaer, New Money for a New World, edited by Jennifer Dunne.

This is the best reasoned argument against Bitcoin, and crypto in general, that I've seen. I've long been bothered by some of the problems you raise, and on the other hand your idea of using crypto for one specific purpose is brilliant! The one thing missing from your argument is…

Wow! This essay really belongs in the self-improvement literature. I'd frame it as, "a fuller context can turn the meaning of an experience upside down." It's something worth remembering through life's ups and downs. It can help to spare us from defeatist and resigned thinking and attitudes! It reminds me of the story of the Chinese farmer. Have you heard it?

I agree with you regarding the difficulty of getting Universal Basic Income (UBI) adopted in the US. Your UBET is an intriguing, plausible bridge to full UBI--which is itself a bridge to new kinds of societies based on systems of sustainable technological abundance. Whether or not something like UBET becomes…

That should be in flashing neon lights.

Fungi are extraordinary. Dr. Paul Stamets offered an hour-long video talk, as I recall entitled Six Ways Fungi Can Save the World.