The fact that money does not represent value on a holistic scale (humanity) is the root problem imo. Instead money is designed to represent value to an individual, which creates an incentive for making instant gratification i.e. something an average person will value. If things of value were worth money then the world would 'automatically' go in the 'right' direction.
I think decentralization is the end goal of any system, it is much easier to design a centralized system (a minimum viable product if you will - like the current internet) but more robust to have it decentralized. The egalitarian eutopic vision that people keep dreaming of is basically ultimate decentralization. Where somehow the system is designed so that the rules 'are invisible', people do what benefits them the most but it's also the best thing to do and legal. Any move towards this limit is a step in the right direction in my mind.
I was unable to reply to smallnamespace(and it just did not pass my internal value system to create a 2nd account just for that)
@smallnamespace: I actually did answer, or, if you can't get an exact(ish) pointer out of my answer there are hints scattered all over .. yes, not all answers are of the one-sentence-gives-you-all kind
@openfuture: In many aspects, albeit put in different terms, I do agree that money, or the monetary system per-se is at the core of today's dystopia-to-be-built but what I think you meant by your answer(and correct me if I'm wrong here) is some sort of resource(or environmental-impact)-based currency which is -in my opinion- counter to what money actually is/should be: primarily, in its pure form, a _tool_ to make exchange of goods and services easier. I recommend reading about Silvio Gesell's work, IIRC both Hayek(Constitution of Liberty and probably others) and Friedman(can't help you here) cited him as one of the greatest economists of the century(commercial over). Of course once you understand what he was getting at, you have to strip all that's unsuitable and convert the rest to a 21c world, nevertheless a fun exercise which will give you a ton of new ideas(like, on-demand per transaction currency for exchange w an intrinsic value-loosing personal currency as your own saving option within your asset pool). Wurgl experiment, BI, 21century state-of-affairs - lot of mind experiments I invite you to here so get a deep breath and start reading ;)
Thanks, I really appreciate thoughtful book recommendations! Sorry that my answer is late, perhaps no one will see it but I will answer anyway.
I don't think you can make a separate currency for the holistic viewpoint (holocoin ^^) my point is more that what we currently value (money) isn't valuable anymore. That's the fault of the institutions that are supposed to provide 'value' (thereby earning money) by making sure that money is correlated to value and not the other way around (finance / banking etc) as well as the institutions that make sure that 'value regulators' don't get delusions of grandeur (governments / police etc).
Basically, if the feedback loop goes: "People -> Institutions -> Government -> People" then everything is fine, that's democracy and the non people part of the equation will see value in cultivating appreciation for skill and knowledge in society. However if the power gets too concentrated you can effectively cut "People" out of the equation so you get a feedback loop of "value regulators" and "regulation regulators" stroking each others backs creating ever more severe conditions for the rest of us till the whole things collapses as people lose faith in the abstractions that were supposed to be meaningful (like money or law) and go berserk, much to everyones' chagrin.
This is obviously a huge oversimplification but basically I feel losing faith in humanity is a self fulfilling prophecy. The whole point of decentralization is to at the same time disarm the powers that be in a fairly orderly manner before the collapse/fascism while giving everyone both the power and the responsibility over their immediate environment. If you've ever seen a child try to handle responsibility then you also know that it is a huge perspective shift for them and a great motivator for trying to actually know yourself what needs to be done rather than knowing who to ask. We need a humanity like that if we want to survive the coming age of superweapons.
tl;dr. religion is good, organised religion is bad.
edit: just realized I'm not really answering you so much as just rambling my point.
I think decentralization is the end goal of any system, it is much easier to design a centralized system (a minimum viable product if you will - like the current internet) but more robust to have it decentralized. The egalitarian eutopic vision that people keep dreaming of is basically ultimate decentralization. Where somehow the system is designed so that the rules 'are invisible', people do what benefits them the most but it's also the best thing to do and legal. Any move towards this limit is a step in the right direction in my mind.