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Phillosoph

Future Money


“I prefer hard cash. If you can’t scratch a window with it I don’t accept it”.

Roosta: The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Fit the Eighth)
Regular readers will know that on Fridays blog posts here tend to stray a little from the usual topics of self-defence and preparedness. Today is no exception and probably diverges even more than usual. It is, however, a logical progression from the recent post on the design of money.
Recently I was watching a certain sci-fi series and two of the characters offered another character a bribe. What was notable about this is that you saw them physically offering money. The money offered was only seen at a distance and appeared to be coloured plastic cards. While money is often discussed in science fiction shows I cannot recall that many incidences when you actually see the physical cash. (One exception to this that springs to mind is Pluto Nash and “the Hillarys”)

Hillary Clinton Banknote

What kind of form might a future hard currency take? The above example did illustrate that cash did not have to be paper, or even flexible polymer. When you might be on another planet to the mint there is something to be said for an exchange medium that is more durable.
Chinese Coin
Coins are one of the oldest mediums of exchange. The Chinese seem to have used the same basic design for more than a thousand years. The square hole in the centre seems to have been introduced as part of the production process, allowing a batch of coins to be threaded on a square rod for filing into their final shape. It had the added advantage that coins could be threaded on a string for easier bulk handling. This also resulted in the wide use of coins as ornaments or charms. Coins from other countries show more variety but nearly all are circular or circle-like equilateral polygons. Coins are convenient to carry in a pocket or pouch and can be stacked for bulk handling. Their shape also makes them suitable for vending machines and other coin-operated apparatus. On the downside, coins are relatively heavy, which can be significant if handling large quantities. The US military uses paper coins (technically “gift certificates”) in certain deployment areas. The use of these “Pogs” is to avoid the need to air-transport large quantities of coins. (The military might like to also consider removing chewing gum from the MRE packs and inventory in general as a non-productive item to save air-lift weight).
The weight of coins might not be a problem in an environment where most transactions are conducted electronically, since there would be less need to handle large quantities of physical cash. I will discuss the implications of “e-cash” further in a moment.
A money exchange company designed some “space money” as a publicity stunt a few years back.
“The Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination – or Quid for short as interplanetary vernacular demands – had to be completely free of sharp edges, such as would be found on coins. Magnetic strips and electronic chips such as are found embedded within our credit cards would be also prove useless as they would be fried by cosmic radiation.
In addition, the currency had to be completely independent of itself, unlike electronic banking, which would be useless in space due to the great distances signals would have to travel for confirmation, making for some rather lengthy check-out times.”

Very attractive, but somewhat bulky and they do not look like they will stack.
An alternative or supplement to coins might be a card-shaped currency as shown in the TV show I was watching. Casino chips, for example, are supplemented by “plaques” for high denominations. Does a card-shaped currency need to use something the size of a credit card? No, it doesn’t. A smaller card would allow more to be carried. The optimum size might be something like a stick of chewing gum, or more conveniently, the size of a Kimball tag, approximately 1" x 3". For want of any better term, let us call this format a “Kimball Note”.
A small plastic card along these lines would offer a number of advantages. The obvious one is that it was inspired by a punched card and would readily lend itself to various types of mechanical handling ranging from counting machines to vending devices. If you have ever tried feeding a bank note into a ticket machine you will know that they can be rather fussy in their diet. A rigid plastic card would be much easier to use. The vending machine industry has sometimes suffered because their machines could only take small denomination coins. This new format of money would prevent this problem.

Like a punched card, a Kimball Note has one corner cut off so mechanical devices can detect its orientation. The other corners would be rounded to facilitate being carried loose in a pocket. Adding a few holes to distinguish denominations is a tempting idea, but it might be more useful to place raised bumps on the note too for the convenience of the partially sighted. Notches in the edge of the note might be another identification feature and would allow one to verify at a glance that all the notes in a stack were of the same value. A barcode embossed on the surface might further increase the ease with which machines can handle the cash.
“What about electronic transactions?” some of you may be asking. You might regard the above suggestions are somewhat superfluous because in the future we will be in a cashless society. We seem to be advancing along this route. In many cities buses and other public transport no longer accept cash. Instead you present a travelcard to an electronic reader. In the past few years it has been possible to also pay by touching a “contactless” credit/ debit card to the same reader. You can also now use your phone instead of a credit/ debit card. Banking apps allow you to use your phone to send money directly to someone’s bank account. Nearly everyone now carries a phone or similar device so it is only a matter of time before it will be commonplace to transfer money “phone-to-phone” in face to face transactions.
A “cashless” or “e-cash” society could have some interesting potential aspects. As you transmit payment to the street hotdog vendor is someone “eavesdropping” on your signal and duplicating the debit, effectively an electronic pickpocket? Of course, your unauthorized payment to a person unknown is going to show up on your bank records. Your banking AI may even be keeping a tally of who you have interacted with and know you did not make a payment to “XXX”. Can you mug someone in an “e-cash” society? You can take someone’s phone by stealth or by force but that will be of little use without a way around the security protocols, which may involve biometrics and AIs. There is the option of kidnapping someone and forcing them to disable the security, but this is rather involved for many petty criminals and likely to attract significant police investigation. Protocols to prevent this will soon become common. For example, a freezing of all transactions should the bank customer disappear for any length of time. Essentially we are considering the electronic equivalent of the dye-packs that have now made bank robbery a much rarer occurrence these days. In all these cases, once you have the e-cash, what do you do with it? Sending it to your own bank account is effectively a confession. Electronic money laundering will probably be quite involved and leave the thief with very little, if anything for himself.
Bribery also becomes somewhat difficult in an e-cash society since the sudden unaccounted for debit in your accounts will be plain to see. Likewise, if you steal goods or other materials you do not really want payment in e-cash.
It seems likely that in a cashless, e-cash society some form of hard currency system is likely to manifest eventually. This may start as a barter system, using some medium of exchange of mutual value, such as narcotics. Inevitably the bulk of materials involved will give rise to some form of exchangeable token system, or in other words, hard cash.
We are used to thinking of governments issuing money but there is ample precedent for commercial and non-government organisations creating mediums of exchange, particularly when official coins and notes are in short supply in an area. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to envision a future society where organized crime or corporations produce their own hard currency.
If you have watched the “John Wick” movies you have seen an example of such a system.
When watching the first film I assumed the “gold coins” referred to were Kugerrands or similar. In the second movie it is revealed that the gold coins are manufactured by the underworld. Early in the movie Winston receives a shipment and compliments another character on the workmanship.
Categories
Phillosoph

Night Demons, Sleeping and Yoga.

Regular readers will know that this blog is mainly concerned with survival and self-defence. The blog does allow me to occasionally address more diverse topics that I like to think of as ways of surviving the rat race or defence against the perils of modern life.
The night before last was unpleasant. I awoke in the early hours and experienced an episode of sleep paralysis. (Somewhat misnamed I have to observe). As I awoke, I was disorientated and struggled to recognise where I was. I had a feeling that I might not be alone. I tried to make a noise but no sound came out and I was unable to move. The feeling passed and I regained movement. I tried to sleep again. As I lay there a wave of “immobility” affected my feet and began to move up my body. I felt myself dropping off into sleep but also had the feeling this was something being imposed upon me so fought against it. The rest of the night I had difficulty remaining sleeping.
The next day I read up a little on sleep paralysis. Very interesting stuff. Most people will experience a couple of episodes of sleep paralysis during their lives. It appears that as the body’s physical motion is inhibited one’s paranoia goes into overdrive and familiar surroundings and sounds will be interpreted as potential threats. Hence the feelings of fear and that there is another presence in the room. Nature of the threat varies with the experiencer's cultural icons. A friend told me he had an episode of sleep paralysis where he heard a demon whispering unintelligible words into his ear. The same friend is a long time sufferer of tinnitus so it seems likely this was his paranoia perceiving the usual background noise differently. 
One of the things I learnt from the British NHS website was that if you are experiencing sleep paralysis you should attempt to wiggle your fingers or toes. I was also reading about related folklore Stories of supernatural creatures that sit on your chest during the night and stop you moving or make breathing hard are common to many cultures. Interestingly at least one tradition suggests you can drive the creature away by attempting to bite your thumb or wiggle your fingers! Or you should attempt to steal the creature's hat!
The NHS site yielded some useful information on improving sleep patterns. A useful tip was to tidy my bedroom to create a less chaotic and more relaxing environment. If nothing else I no longer trip over stuff as much when going to bed! Most of us are aware that drinking coffee close to bedtime is not a good idea but many of us will overlook the ingestion of other stimulants such as smoking or caffeinated soft drinks. Unusually for me I had drank a can of coke after dinner that night, so wonder if this might have contributed to my unpleasant night?

Strenuous exercise close to bedtime is to be avoided, the exception being sex, the one form of exercise that can be both vigorous and sleep-inducing. Not a particularly practical option for me currently so I looked at the second best option, relaxing using yoga. The yoga that I am most familiar with is the “Salute the Sun” sequence but it occurred to me a set of exercises intended to be performed in the morning might not be the best choice to relax me before bedtime. I came across this set of exercises which you can even do in bed! I didn’t do the full eight minutes for my first attempts but did find them quite effective. I had not expected to fall to sleep very quickly last night given how stressful the previous night had been but I did notice I did feel more relaxed and less restless while I was lying in bed. I will persist with the yoga and see how it goes.
Update: Since I first wrote this, I have had a couple of minor events. My half-awake mind tries to counter-attack, and making a palm-strike has much the same effect as wiggling fingers or making signs against evil. A similar reflex seems to wake me up if I dream of something particularly disturbing.
I hope that this information has been of some interest or help to some of you. Pleasant dreams!