Background

Johan G, who’s a commentator on this weblog and who has been following the quantum economics collection, posted this touch upon Quantum Economics 7: The Photon Query — labour because the Quantum of Worth:

I like the thought of labour as wavelength. The human-hour is well recognisable as a quantum of effort, and its ‘power’, moderately than depth, is dependant on the H-H wavelength. I pedantically use power, moderately than depth, as a result of power may very well be tied to specialism, whereas depth could be the variety of people engaged on the identical factor without delay. Very like you should use a microwave to warmth stuff up, however you could not give your self sunburn with it, as a result of the wavelength is simply too lengthy to trigger UV-esque harm.

The opposite thought that popped into my head, was that photons belong to a household of particles: bosons. Bosons are the trade particles which are chargeable for basic drive interactions. Within the photon’s case, that’s electro-magnetism. Possibly we might coin a time period for the trade particle of human labour? The labouron, or the workon. I am undecided I actually like both of those, however they illustrate the thought.

That set my thoughts racing – and exploring, as a result of I’m on an enormous studying curve right here.

That is the response I got here up with:

Response

Let me supply this for now, generated by AI, I admit, however in a directed and generated style, as was this entire collection.

1. Why this analogy is highly effective

In physics, bosons are the mediators of forces – photons carry the electromagnetic drive, gluons bind quarks, W and Z bosons handle the weak drive, and so forth. They do not represent matter itself (fermions try this), however they make matter work together.

If we apply that metaphor to economics and society, human labour isn’t just “stuff” (like items, capital, and even cash) – it’s the interplay that makes the financial system cohere and performance. With out labour, there isn’t any manufacturing, no trade, no organisation.

So: imagining a “labour boson” – a basic trade particle that mediates human financial exercise – has conceptual chunk.

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2. Doable names

“Labouron” or “workon” each convey the particle concept, however I see why you’re feeling they do not fairly land. Listed here are some alternate options:

• Ergon – from the Greek for work/power (Aristotle used ergon to imply the attribute exercise of one thing).
• Praxeon – from praxis, which means purposeful human exercise.
• Doleon – from doleo, Latin “to toil.”
• Taskon – simple and fashionable, however carries the fitting sense of discreteness.
• Hieron – from hieros (sacred), suggesting the deep social worth of labour.

Of those, ergon or praxeon may sit greatest: they hyperlink each to power and to goal.

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3. What would the “labour boson” do?

If we prolong the analogy:

• It mediates between human wants and materials assets.
• It binds individuals into cooperative buildings – corporations, households, states.
• It transmits worth, as a result of labour embodies and expresses what individuals need to prioritise.
• It interacts with different “forces”: capital, land, know-how, establishments.

In different phrases, simply as photons make the invisible drive of electromagnetism seen by means of interplay, the “labour boson” would make the invisible social drive of labor seen by means of motion.

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4. Extending the metaphor

We might construct a small “particle desk” of economics:

• Moneyon (foreign money as medium of trade, a unit particle of belief).
• Crediton (the particle of deferred trade).
• Labouron/Praxeon (the particle of human effort).
• Needon (the motive force particle, representing demand or necessity).

You’d then have an financial “area concept,” the place interactions between these trade particles generate the bigger buildings we see as markets, establishments, and crises.

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Response

Having mused on this final night time, I might now remark additional.

I’m accepting the danger of changing into greater than just a little geeky in posting this explicit trade, moderately than half 9 of the collection this morning (which can now occur tomorrow). Nevertheless, I assumed that this was significantly fascinating for a lot of causes.

Firstly, this concept places human exercise on the centre of economics, the place it belongs. Economics is just not about cash, markets, or summary arithmetic. It’s about human exercise, and that needs to be its focus. This collection has highlighted the need of making narratives round that reality to me.

Greater than that, although, the extension of the metaphor additionally made some sense to me. The opposite concepts famous, representing a variety of particles inside the financial sphere, implied {that a} multitude of things want reconciliation inside a profitable financial system, and that there’s not one, as Rachel Reeves would have it.

Taking that concept, and placing it inside the arithmetic of Heisenberg’s uncertainty precept (which I clarify, I solely perceive in very small half, at most) plainly you give you one thing for economics that appears extra like matrix algebra than the usual differential equations presently utilized by most economists.

I very a lot doubt that that is one thing that I’d develop at a theoretical stage, and but there’s in that concept one thing that appears to me to be extremely highly effective. There are two causes for that.

Firstly, matrix algebra is a type of arithmetic which requires particular ordering, and so does the financial system.

Greater than that, although, if you happen to multiply two matrices collectively, the order through which you accomplish that issues; then the implication is that the motion doesn’t work in reverse, and once more, nor does the financial system.

The implication is that the financial system is just not one thing on which to experiment, exactly as a result of actual lives are concerned. As a substitute, it’s one thing that it’s important to take critically. I’m not solely positive that that is clear to all those that are policymakers at current.

I settle for the likelihood that I might need gone off on a major tangent right here, however there are concepts implicit on this that I believe are price recording, which is why I’ve chosen to place them out as a separate weblog submit.

Earlier posts on this collection

1. Discussing quantum economics, accounting, cash and extra
2. Quantum economics, half 1: Why Quantum Pondering Issues for Economics
3. Quantum economics, half 2: Cash as Particle and Stream
4. Quantum economics, half 3: Entanglement and Double-Entry Bookkeeping
5. Quantum economics, half 4: Quantum Uncertainty and Financial Forecasts
6. Quantum economics, half 5: Hypothesis, Potential, and Power
7. Quantum economics, half 6: Infinite Guarantees, Finite Power (MMT and constraint)
8. Quantum economics, half 7: The Photon Query — labour because the Quantum of Worth
9. Quantum economics, half 8: Land because the Discipline

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