What is *real* value?

For anything to truly function as an alternative to the prevailing system, it has to exist entirely independently of the prevailing system.

Gold is the closest 'baseline' asset we have. This would definitely be better than USD. But "I found this stuff in the ground" is really no more meaningful than 'I made my electronic device do some maths for a while.' (e.g. BTC)

Better would be an entirely fixed asset, that isn't subject to monetary policy or insider tweets and pump gangs.

Like, 1hr of human labour, though this is changing with automation; and we have somehow gotten the ridiculous idea that an hour of Western labour is more valuable than an hour of Eastern labour.

Everything changes value depending on how badly people want or need it. If you are dying in the desert you might pay 10,000$ for a bottle of water.

Outside of that extreme though: can we devise a real stable benchmark of value?

Interestingly, Work From Home/remote work might enable a return to "land" as the true value baseline.

On The Orville tv show, they have a matter synthesizer which renders commerce for goods irrelevant; instead it is reputation that is the currency.

This seems admirable at first and is presented this way; except that you then need a method to quantify that reputation. In the show they ironically explore a world where public consensus is the metric, measured by up- & down-votes. This was set as a contrast to Earth's system, but in reality it's exactly the same, just with broad (and flawed) procedures rather than Earth's apparently flawless implementation, which is never directly quantified.

Can we find a true, almost-universal representation of value? One unshakable by central banks or the whims of political megalomania? Presumably one that "good people" who seek to do good for society and civilization can acquire through those actions, while actions that harm or hinder are disincentivised?

I guess I lead myself [back to] here: can we monetize good deeds, as a base store of value?