I believe this a new way at looking at, literally, everything there is, tangible or not. It involves two pairs of qualities, meaning that every thing can only be one of four types.
Regenerative
Thing is a bit lazy, so I will use instance instead (it is less tangible sounding). Regnerative instances are things that can be recreated.
Non-regenerative
Non-regenerative instances are irreplaceable.
Mutable
Change is part of its journey
Immutable
Change is unlikely, but possible by chance or the intent of another.
Examples:
Gold is immutable and non-regenerative. It is unlikely to change otherwise, but we can change it, but we can’t make more of it.
Water is mutable and regenerative. We could make it, and it recycles itself well.
A carrot is also mutable and regenerative. They rot, we can eat them, easy to grow more back.
A Picasso is mutable and regenerative. We can make copies. Note that these definitions may adjust with time, if technology allows something new to be recreated.
A person is mutable and non-regenerative. You can make another human, but not that one (yet).
Language is mutable and non-regenerative. Languages easily disappear from lack of use, and then they could be gone forever.
That leaves immutable and regenerative. Thanks to new technology – we have the example of diamonds. We can now make “fake” diamonds, but once made they are unlikely to change.
Replaceable vs irreplaceable
If I am at a supermarket and choose to buy a 10cm long carrot instead of the 11cm long carrot next to it, the world will carry on in the same way. While they are different carrots with different attributes, whichever one is chosen makes no difference.
Whereas Einstein’s parents could have each had children with someone else instead. The result would still be humans with different attributes, the particular one called Einstein made a difference.
Radical Gaia Economics
Possibly Gaia is made up of those 4 types. Perhaps anything mutable and irreplaceable is not allowed to be owned or transformed, by law? So arguably eating a sheep is OK (mutable and replaceable), but eating a human (mutable and irreplaceable, is not).
The commons
A good explanation for what the commons is – mutable and irreplaceable, that requires care, best handled by groups.
In the book Capitalism 3.0, it lists these are being part of the commons:
Nature: air, water, DNA, seeds, topsoil, animals, plants
Community: playgrounds, libraries, accounting standards, farmer’s markets, money
Culture: language, religion, jazz, open source software
All are mutable. All are either irreplaceable once gone, or harm to them makes a difference (but without harm they are replaceable). Water is replaceable, but water mixed with poison can make a difference.
Given that we regrow crops and forests, and our food animals easily replicate themselves, it is possible to live in this world without ever taking from the commons in a way that changes things in the long term.
I was drunk (and it was a lunar eclipse) when I came up with this. A much more refined version is here.