At the fourth, the fractal (or viral, or radiant) stage of value, there is no point of reference at all, and value radiates in all directions, occupying all interstices, without reference to anything whatsoever, by virtue of pure contiguity. At the fractal stage there is no longer any equivalence, whether natural or general. Properly speaking there is now no law of value, merely a sort of epidemic of value, a sort of general metastasis of value, a haphazard proliferation and dispersal of value. Indeed, we should really no longer speak of 'value' at all, for this kind of propagation or chain reaction makes all valuation possible. . Jean Baudrillard
About This Quote

To explain the way in which value is spread throughout society, we can use the analogy of a virus. A virus is like a chemical that can replicate in one or many hosts and cause damage in the host. The damage in each case is dependent on the host and the amount of damage caused by the virus will always be different. Value radiates in all directions, occupying all interstices, without reference to anything whatsoever, by virtue of pure contiguity. The idea of value radiating in all directions with no reference to anything whatsoever is very scientific.

This means that this value is not derived from anything else and therefore it has no point of reference for people to use as a basis for comparison. But all things have points of reference, even if they are abstractions such as the second law of thermodynamics or a random configuration of atoms. The idea that all of a sudden money does not have a point of reference for everyone is quite alien to our modern way of thinking where we use this kind of money to pay for food and shelter.

In order to understand it fully we must get more philosophical about it and get rid of our reliance on money altogether.

Source: The Transparency Of Evil: Essays In Extreme Phenomena

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