The money myth is cracking
As value slips through our fingers and AI rewrites the rules, what kind of story will we tell next?
A few years ago, I made my cousin a Christmas gift:
a collage made of torn rupee bills.
The total value? Maybe a euro. Probably less.
But to me, it was golden.
Not because of what it could buy, but because of what it represented.
I was cutting through a story. Tearing up little symbols of belief.
Paper that only has power because, collectively, we’ve agreed it does.
Yuval Noah Harari calls money a “shared myth.”
A story.
One we all co-author. And the more people believe in it, the more real it becomes.
That idea stuck with me.
Because if money is a collective illusion a hallucination we all agreed to have at the same time,
then economists are basically mythologists with spreadsheets.
Forecasting the fate of a very convincing dream.
And that dream, is beginning to crack.
The money we used as kids, coins for candy, folded bills in birthday cards is vanishing.
What we have now doesn’t jingle or crumple.
It doesn’t sit in a wallet.
It floats, abstract, invisible, and surreal.
Shaped by speculation, algorithms, meme stocks, and late-night decisions made behind closed doors by people in expensive suits.
And still, we walk around as if it’s all completely normal.
Like the emperor’s outfit is fine.
But if you squint just a little, you’ll notice it:
Something’s off.
The cultural and technological fabric that held this whole thing together is unravelling.
Philosophers, economists, and engineers should probably be building a new system,
but instead, most of them are busy developing AGI.
And once that dragon’s out of the cage, it might be too late to steer.
We’re in a strange in-between.
Old systems wobbling. New ones not quite ready.
And whether we admit it or not, we’re being pushed into a much bigger question:
What is money, really?
What is value?
What is wealth?
What is work?
And maybe even more urgently:
What comes next?
We’re living through a kind of digital renaissance.
Reality and simulation are starting to blend.
We work through screens. We connect through likes.
We “produce” without touching anything real.
And in this pixelated fog, something quiet but seismic is happening:
The idea of value is shifting.
Some say the future is already here.
Your attention, your time, your behaviour, these are the real currencies now.
Apps don’t charge you because they’re not after your money.
They’re after your choices.
Your clicks.
Your curiosity.
I wrote more about that here.
(Spoiler: I’m no economist, but a new system is necessary and no one’s really talking about it.)
And the question now becomes:
If AGI takes your seat at the office, and machines are faster, smarter, cheaper
then how do we share what’s left?
What happens to value in a world where labour is no longer necessary?
The Dystopian Route
In this version, we’re glued to screens. Idiocracy style.
TV on, tablet in hand, toilet sofa, drone delivery of our most primal needs.
We might even stop having sex, dopamine’s easier elsewhere.
We’re nudged by algorithms.
Paid in digital tokens for completing tasks we don’t remember.
AGI takes all white-collar jobs, including Zuck and the CEO boys.
Robots handle the rest.
Sure, you could argue:
“Dude, new jobs will come up.”
Yes. Fine. Maybe. What about: Space Junk Asistente? Fine-tuner? Digital-ego-manager? Space-farmer? Digital afterlife coordinator?
Anyway, sure. That’s how tech works, it brings up new sectors to life.
But up until now, AI has been additive. Productivity goes up. We all kind of stay the same as old jobs replace new jobs.
The problem is when AGI starts inventing science we can’t even decode.
New math. New physics. New systems essential to society, but incomprehensible to us.
They’ll develop hypotheses, conclusions, energy models, and biological cures faster than we can read the abstracts.
And we’ll still work, yes. But it’ll feel different.
All gamified. Feedback-looped. Addictive.
You’ll get rewarded for staying online.
And punished, quietly, for introspection.
A world built for engagement, not reflection.
A candy-coloured cage.
But hey, who wants to work in a coal factory when you can earn more from your sofa?
The Creator Route
But there’s another way.
In this world, value isn’t about clicks or compliance.
It’s about creation.
Expression becomes currency.
Those who make meaningful things: poems, podcasts, paintings, tools, stories are valued not for scale, but for soul.
Maybe not viral. But real.
A harder path.
Especially when most people will crank out short-form junk to chase dopamine and algorithmic gold stars.
But it’s a more human path.
Like neighbours trading soup and socket wrenches.
Of course, we’ll probably land somewhere in between.
A little dystopia. A little creativity.
A lot of confusion.
But I believe something deeper will eventually rise through the noise.
A quiet rebellion.
Not against money itself, but against the idea that it’s the only thing that matters.
Mi Utopia
In this world, people come together.
They build smaller communities.
Create their own currencies, not based on scarcity, but on care.
Productivity and success get redefined.
Off-grid living rises. Families move back to deserted towns.
Cities evolve into hubs of culture, not cubicles.
Back in the countryside, people trade favours, tools, veggies, childcare, knowledge.
They know their neighbours.
They grow things. They build trust. They share.
Not because it’s trendy.
But because it feels like coming home.
In these micro-economies, value lives in relationships, not transactions.
In soil, not screens.
In belonging, not balance sheets.
And maybe that sounds naïve.
But when the old story starts to fall apart as it is…
what takes its place depends on the story we choose to live next.
Money was never the real magic.
The real magic was belief.
Agreement.
A shared story, told well enough, loud enough, that we all nodded along.
That spell is breaking.
And now we get to write something new.
Something slower.
Something wilder.
Something that smells like earth after rain.
Something rooted in the things we can’t buy
but that somehow make us rich.
Peace out,
Alejandro xxx
I love this piece. How the rhymn of life should evolve, and how the pictures captured each segment. FYI When I picked up my phone it was to pay my internet bill, then I got distracted by the headline of your story. So for a brief moment I chose reading something creative over spending money .