Re: Money is the only human created fiction that everyone believes

On 1 August 2015 at 06:04, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:

> "Money is the only human created fiction that everyone believes"... and
> the coming biological separation of human kind:
>
> http://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_humans


What he means is that most businesses comply with legal tender laws.

It's quite an old idea that cultures are incubated by what he calls
stories, in particular, a certain kind of story, known as a myth.

The "myth of a nation" was popularized in the 50s.  Economic myths
certainly are influential today.  Read about the "myth of barter".  Or the
"myth of hyperinflation" that prevents us from effectively helping the
poorest on the planet.  Historians will look back on this, the way we look
back today on, say, the Roman pantheons.

Every myth has a delivery mechanism.  The book and printing press being an
important vehicles.  How the myth is delivered is actually more important
than the myth itself.  This is why the web is going to have a bigger impact
than most people imagine.  As a delivery mechanism for payments and
economic activity, the vital thing for our species is that it stays as
neutral as possible, something we have technically struggled with, to date.


>
>
> -- manu
>
> --
> Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
> Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
> blog: Web Payments: The Architect, the Sage, and the Moral Voice
> https://manu.sporny.org/2015/payments-collaboration/
>
>
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