The Cockpit - Research tool for money and behavior

Context

Societal Context

Us, humans, we collectively struggle to live sustainably, damaging ourselves, our fellow men and our planet. That's no coincidence, we struggle to act sustainably: We are built to focus on short-term survival, responding to immediate threats and rewards rather than long-term systemic risks. Biologically, one could say we are at a disadvantage. Compounding this intrinsic limitation is the design of the economic system: our debt based, fractional monetary system where the majority of people need to work to gain financial security causes increasingly unsustainable stress, in turn exacerbating unsustainable choices.

Research context

To promote sustainable choices, we require systems which absorb and embrace our biological make-up. Unfortunately, little to no scientific research considers our monetary system as a variable which can be designed, let alone that scientists study the interaction between monetary systems characteristics (like debt) and sustainability related outcomes. This lack of knowledge limits the potential for transition and negatively impacts the aspired goals of the SDGs.

Organisational Context

Happonomy has created a monetary systems design supporting sustainability and have developed and are developing research tools to study the link between monetary systems characteristics and sustainability outcomes. On of those tools, dubbed Cockpit, is a simulation engine which enables researchers to perform quantitative research on monetary systems and sustainability outcomes.


Scale

This is not a niche issue. Every country operating within a debt-based fiat currency system — which today means virtually the entire global economy — is affected by these structural dynamics. Research wise, very few sustainability researchers in the global scientific community consider monetary system characteristics as a variable for sustainability.

Addressing which specific problem

To achieve systemic change, a formal understanding of our situation and potential alternatives is required. We need more awareness and a better understanding in the scientific community about the relation between monetary system characteristics, sustainability related outcomes and corresponding sustainable behavior. To achieve this research tools are needed.

Solution, approach, methodology

We have developed a first version of our economic simulation engine software enabling researchers to combine a set of over 70 macro, monetary economy and sustainability related variables. We want to further the development of the software so it can be used by other researchers. To achieve this, we want to transform the engine to a user friendly, modular cloud based application.

Of course, building the engine as such is not enough. That's why in order to catalyse the systems research and the usage of the engine we want to present the research tool on the bi-annual conference for the European Society of Ecological Economists (https://ecolecon.eu/) - ESEE 2026 Conference. For this we have submitted a closed session proposal focusing on research tools for ecological economy.

We aim for three major outcomes:

The availability of the cloud based, user friendly engine enabling the possibility for relevant simulations.

Increased awareness with EU ecological economists about the impact of monetary systems on sustainability and sustainable behavior.

Specific interest of one or multiple scientists to use the tool in a research setting.