River Charters, Net Zero Cities and BioRegional Banks: Creating a Life-Ennobling Economic System with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs

Accidental Gods

In this week's episode of Accidental Gods, we dive into the visionary world of economic transformation with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs. Emily, a chartered accountant with an MA in regenerative economics, is not your average number cruncher. She's at the forefront of reimagining our financial systems, exploring the intersection of technology, governance, and the natural world.

Join us as Emily unveils the bold concept of life-enabling economics (LEE) and the radical aspiration of establishing bioregional banks — a system where money is no longer a mere transactional tool but a means to foster a thriving web of life. From a watershed-scale project in Scotland to the Sheffield River Don project, Emily details practical steps towards making these ideas a reality, including the creation of relationship registers and multivalent currencies like 'river coins'.

The conversation also touches on the challenges of aligning current political and economic systems with these pioneering concepts. Emily shares insights into the Net Zero Cities team's efforts, working with 112 mission cities to forge climate city contracts and policy labs that embody a mission-oriented methodology.

This episode is a call to action for all listeners to engage with these transformative ideas. If you're inspired by the potential of a future where financial systems are in harmony with ecological and social well-being, then tune in, offer your thoughts, and be part of the change. Emily's work is a testament to the power of collective imagination and the tangible steps we can take towards a regenerative economy.

For those ready to delve deeper into the mechanics of these groundbreaking ideas, visit the show notes for links to the thought-provoking blogs and learn how you can contribute to this evolutionary journey. Accidental Gods is the platform where we explore the edges of possibility — and this episode is a beacon of hope for a world in dire need of economic renaissance.

As I say at the top of the conversation, these are amongst the most interesting concepts I've ever read - and I spend my life exploring this field. I'd like to read you the opening paragraph of the Concept paper:

"Instead of focusing on labour, property, individual or democratic rights, this vision seeks to unfurl the full potential of a

growing planetary consciousness. It is an expression of practical realism embedded in a deep respect for all

manifestations of life; past, present, human, more-than-human, the sacred and the machine. This economy

seeks to move beyond the everyday codes of property, labour, capital and private contracts and break free

from the constrictive dance of socio-political isms. It offers an unbounded understanding of agency, inviting

the full range of adjacent possibilities, thus refuting the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few."

and then a few paragraphs down,

"At its core, this is a provocation of the heart. An invitation to cultivate lives of profound collaboration, dignity,

psychological and physical freedom. It is a framework meshed in human embodied experience that critically

includes machine and non-human systems, integrating them into the same expansive beyond-paradigm of

inter-becoming."

The two papers are in the show notes and they're definitely worth reading. In the meantime, this conversation moved even beyond these into whole new areas that, once again with DML, breached the boundaries of my thinking - in a good way.

Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/
Life Ennobling Economics Position Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EiU8MQ3JKtuCJIUTrxkl2Fzx0xWBiWDu/view
Life Ennobling Economics Concept White Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hNpgVEyYiERE0Jj3gczUfK9ki9GmrFRm/view
Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 1: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-dac459dc844e
Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 2: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-38ed3849395f
Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 3: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-951ca09dd76d
Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 4:

The Swedish Cornerstone prototype was co-developed with Linnéa Rönnquist with the support of Samhällskontraktet

Emily Harris in Episode #176 https://accidentalgods.life/bridging-from-the-necessary-to-the-possible-with-emily-harris-of-dark-matter-labs/
Indy Johar Episode #205 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-intentional-gods-claiming-the-future-with-indy-johar-of-the-dark-matter-labs/