THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

with this Official Future is that it has no probability of occurring. In
the words of Willis Harman: 'Our societies have reached a point
where transformation is not optional anymore.’
Why the Official Future is not going to happen
The words of Harman are prophetic for two reasons.
The first was already synthesised in the Time-Compacting Machine
of Chapter I (see Figure 1.3). The historically unprecedented
convergence of the four megatrends Age Wave, Information
Revolution, Climate Change/Species Extinction and Monetary
Instability - points out that 'business as usual' is just not a realistic
possibility. Any one of these trends is sufficient to disturb
significantly the familiar societal patterns. In combination, they make
it highly improbable that we will be able to continue undisturbed on
our familiar path.
The second reason why the Official Future is not going to happen is
directly concerned with the topic of this book: the future of money.
Even before any of these megatrends have fully played out, the
decade of the 1990s has revealed various significant experiments
which alter the nature of money. Nobody questions that new
technologies are going to change the form of our money (i.e., the ever
more ethereal aspects that our 'normal' national currency can take
such as electronic bits in automatic payment systems, on smart cards
or on the Net). However, this is only part of what is occurring.
In parallel with these electronic money developments, something
entirely different is emerging. There are those around the world who
have already launched, or are experimenting with, totally different
kinds of money. They are transforming what money is, who creates
it, what it means, what emotions it encourages, and how people will
behave towards each other and the environment when using it.