"Excessively precise economic analysis can lead to assessing everything in terms of its easily measurable melt value - the value that thieves get from stealing copper wiring from isolated houses, that vandals got from tearing down Greek temples for the lead joints holding the marble blocks together, that shortsighted timber companies get from liquidating their forests. The standard to insist on is live value. What is something worth when it's working?"

5 likes

Source: Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. Book by Stewart Brand, 2009.

About the author

Stewart Brand

Environmentalist, Author

Stewart Brand is an influential environmentalist and author, known for his work on the Whole Earth Catalog and his advocacy for sustainable technology.

All quotes by Stewart Brand →

Same author

More quotes by Stewart Brand

See all →
Stewart Brand Environmentalist, Author

"The urgent finds you; you have to find the important. Importance is not fast. It is slow. It is not superficial. It is deep. And as a result, it's extremely powerful. When important matters go wrong, they undermine everything. When they go right, they sustain everything."

Read quote
Stewart Brand Environmentalist, Author

"Humans have made a huge hole in nature in the last 10,000 years. [With de-extinction,] we have the ability now, and maybe the moral obligation, to repair some of the damage."

Read quote
Stewart Brand Environmentalist, Author

"On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other."

Read quote