IEEE Spectrum special report on the Future of Money (spectrum.ieee.org)

I get a 404 error :(

I walked 1/3 of a mile to the store. Machine down. Walked another 1.5 miles to bank, machine down. I got clever and wrote a check for cash. I swore, I'd never rely on electric money.

If your shrinks/CIA/FBI decide to fuck with you... they can take-over the radio, bank machines, etc.

God says... properly transgressing derided watch_it_buddy Sri_Lanka hoped prevails constitute presuming weal suitable distill flat Whose deaf unreasoning taming ere constrain disagreeing journey As roared relied passed dwellest hogs detesting steep Noah humble amiable becomes particle don't_have_a_cow sounded interpret hills flocks acted faithfulness I'm_on_a_roll vineyard irons occurs thinking eagle's seekest personated refreshing overpass resisting I_love_you by efforts Know beguiled refraining faster hear Hearken occurred Him about abroad spreadest eloquently envious whichsoever lament hasten angels Times ventures rates minded treacherous decay shrunk unlearned pet lawfully touchedst a_flag_on_that_play revenges Wisdom's smiling transferred knowest cloaked reacheth Ecuador official weigheth glide helmet stuff Place recipe preserve wear Burma_Myanmar vigour review contemptible indirectly California allege sores ran exuberant delivered slowly fallacies lap Master's Israel petulantly wrested discipline vaunt unclean Cup permission form witnesses Italy Incarnation request unskilfulness shrink waver joking shod settle somewhere wavered gradually reasonings depart enlarging Epaphroditus buyers diving Firmament settle beclouded incurred forgetfulness replenished talking congregations odour conference removal wondrously serene hugging disposition rulest Lord sang discovereth lie extinguish imbibed pervious

The thing is that most of the articles in this edition deserve their moment in the focus of Hacker News. Money is the ultimate software, it is a protocol agreement that drives human behavior in the real world. Money may be the illusion of value, or merely an allusion to value; but it is also the dominant abstraction of the age of abstractions. You need money to live as a member of society, and to be effective within society you need more than some minimal threshold amount of money. And while we don't wear our bank accounts on our sleeves (or social media profiles) we do have a finely honed sense for who has money in quantity and who does not and it is one of the primary determinants of social status in our society.

Money is a topic worthy of investigations, and of criticism and critique. It is also a fertile ground for entrepreneurial improvement.

Hurrah, Bitcoin! Thank you, IEEE.

"Kublai Khan was ahead of his time: He recognized that what matters about money is not what it looks like, or even what it’s backed by, but whether people believe in it enough to use it."

That belief is based on some form of backing eventually. It could be a hard and liquid commodity or a government demanding taxes in that particular currency.

The full article here http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/a-brief-history-...

Note that money has little to do with abstraction, but rather confidence. People hark back to the 'good old days' of hard money not because they're incapable of abstraction, but because they distrust a political authority to preserve that confidence.