What is money, really? Is it a social contract, a representation of value, a monopoly of the state, or a collective hallucination? If we were to design a new monetary system today, would we choose a commodity standard, fiat currency, or decentralized crypto? Would money still be necessary in a post-labor society?

In this course, we will explore and debate three contemporary perspectives on the nature and function of money: the anthropological view, the modern monetary theory, and the emerging post-labor economics theory.

As a project, we will consider what a minimal computational model of an economy might look like, one that enables experimentation and insight.