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Umberto Eco on Paper vs. Electronic Memory
joabj writes "Paper was itself a technology at one point, this essay
from Umberto Eco, author of "In The Name of the Rose," reminds us. Eco holds forth on the differences between paper and electronic memory. He doesn't come out in favor of either, rather he talks about the advantages each has, in technical terms. Some fascinating ideas here...."
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Why subscribe to Slashdot? Seems like a waste of time for me!! Share your thoughts.
Nitpick : Ecco's book is called "The name of the rose.", NOT "*In* the name of the rose"
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Join the jihad today!What do I mean by not so long ago? Well, we just passed the 40th anniversary of the killing of President Kennedy. He never saw phony money. The only money he ever saw was real U.S. backed in silver money.
Then in the middle 1960s, President Johnson and his liberal democrat friends decided to issue phony money to pay for the his Vietnam War. Suddenly all the silver vanished. Along with all the silver certificates. Thanks LBJ. For nothing.
Do you yell "YO JOE!" or "COBRA!!!!!" Well? Which one? Are you for GI JOE or for COBRA? Cobra Commander is evil I think. YO JOE! COBRA! WAIT?? I just said both.. can that really happen? I don't know. It just did! Shit!
YO JOE! Ok that's better. COBRA! Oh no here I go again...
ironic don't you think that the the gold standard for all republicans was the one who ended the gold standard.
I'm glad to see that. The gaybasher got what was coming to him. Good riddance.
As money has progressed over the centuries, we have seen over and over again the same situation: money initially is a hard tangible rare asset (such as gold or silver, wood or even wheat). Private organizations take this rare tangible asset, store it, and issue a paper certificate for easier trade between two people. Any one person can bring that paper certificate for immediate withdrawal of the hard asset.
Over time, a government comes along and mandates that their populace use the government's own paper certificate. The government usually regulates all banks. Eventually, the banks are then controlled by a central bank (Federal Reserve Bank). And soon enough, government realizes it can make itself "free" money by printing more certificates than there is tangible assets to redeem.
Down the road, the government says that their money no longer needs to be burdened by the redepemption factor, and the new certificates become actual money, even though they are worthless. The said government prints more and more worthless "money," and by having conned the majority of the population, people believe that the paper certificates have value. In the short run, the paper does have value with other people, but in the long run, the paper "money" always ends up being worthless.
The American dollar may be the world standard today, but at the rate that the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Board has been printing money in the past 60 years, our dollar is worthless. It has devalued over 98% since 1914 when the FRB was created. Before that, our dollar held its value very well since the 1700's. Before 1914, our dollars were privately created and held by real individual banks. Today, our banks are all controlled by central banking. It's a monopoly cartel, not a competitive market.
Usually, when a government starts printing more and more fake money, the currency gets inflated, causing prices to go up. Luckily for the U.S., foreign governments have been taking our fake dollars out of circulation and storing them in their banks -- hiding the true inflationary rate (sometimes as high as 10% a year).
The scare for gold bugs such as myself is that China and other foreign banks may try to redeem those dollars in the near future for gold or euros or another "money" or hard money. Should that happen, nay, when that happens, our dollar will become worthless.
Gold has sky rocketed in recent years. If you actually take the value of gold from 1700 to 1914 versus how many dollars were in circulation, and the same value today, the true price of gold should be around $8000 an ounce, not $400 an ounce!
Electronic currency will be easier to manipulate, inflate, and destroy. I am a firm believer that we should return to a true money system -- a free market system where two persons trade items or services of value.
The most amazing book of all time about money is now available free on the internet. Please go here to read it. It is worth your time, and every last one of you will probably be scared out of your mind. I am, every time I read this "bible of money" by Murray Rothbard.
Money (Dollars, Euro, Yen) has as much value as gold, arguably more.
As long as this abstract item can get you sometihng you want, it has value.
The reason I think a standard currency is more valuable is I can get more stuff with it.
If you try to get something electricity, a tv, a car, a hooker, they will likely require money, not a lump of metal.
Money itself has no real value, but as long as enough people accept it, it will work.
BTW, you can't "redeem" dollars for gold, the gold standard is gone, why do you think the price of it fluctuates so much?