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SomeSkin
Wearable watch extension for transactions | |
The whole cash register ritual seems so arcane and awkward now
that most transactions are done via plastic card. Maybe this whole
thing could be integrated into the process of shaking hands via a
wearable watch extension that extends a spiral plastic tounge with
sensors and display up from the
wrist to the palm, so that
negotiation can be conducted electronically via a handshake. Two
spiraled appendaged would catch eachother guided by thf initial
contact of hands and then run sensors by displays in order as they
pulled away from eachother.
[link]
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I like the idea of a handshake-transaction machine. I
take back all those bad things I said about you to
people while you weren't here. |
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Screw that. Bring back Gold. Enough with the fake money that inflates beyond recognition with over-printing, (or digitizing) by assholes in power. |
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Unless you prefer the barter system... no taxes that way though... |
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You are right [2fries] but I fear from your anno, yet another
screwdriver invention is going to pop up! Screw that! |
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The pop-up screwdriver.
hmmmm |
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Several things: Gold is no more "real" money than paper.
It's an agreed upon standard of value with no concrete tie
to goods and services. |
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The most practical smallest unit of gold is (roughly) the
gram. Significantly higher if you want relatively pure
coins (I think the smallest the US mints is 1/10oz. So
your smallest denomination will pay for a sit down
dinner. Good luck buying a hotdog. Unless your talking
about gold certificates, in which case good luck getting
governments not to print more than they actually have in
reserve. After all, it's only a problem if they're all callled
in at once. |
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Additionally, I know of at least 3 simple ways to alter gold
coins to remove some of the metal without making it
obvious to anyone who isn't a trained assayer. One of
them is relatively slow, but is indistinguishable from
normal wear and tear. Another keeps the weight close
enough to the same to make trading by weight
questionable. Unless every single vendor hires an assayer
fraud will run rampant. |
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Also, some level of inflation is generally good for the
economy. Given that you would have an extremely finite
money supply (less than $1000/person at the current
exchange rates) chasing an ever increasing supply of
goods and services a conversion to the gold standard
would be massively deflationary. Good luck paying off
your mortgage or car loan, and good luck getting business
to invest in new development or hire new workers. |
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Finally, once all of that is settled out, have fun with the
massive inflation as soon as
someone actually figures out asteroid mining. |
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So, gold screwdrivers then? |
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//Gold is no more "real" money than paper//
True, but it can't be printed out of thin air and given a value, and since there is 'supposed' to be actual bullion housed somewhere equal to every dollar in circulation, the transition from paper to gold should be fairly seamless... unless you're telling me that there isn't actual gold backing up every dollar printed. |
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//smallest the US mints is 1/10oz. So your smallest denomination will pay for a sit down dinner. Good luck buying a hotdog//
//Unless your talking about gold certificates//
I am talking about incorporating actual gold into coins as currency. Surely there is a way to encase gold within another non precious metal so that it can not be extracted without destroying the coin. No assayers needed, just a non fraudulent government. |
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...and there's always barter.
The only way I've found to get value for value is by cutting out the middle-man. The more governments allow their currency to inflate, the more they drive their own economies underground because it's the only way for the little guy to keep his head above water.
That is not the way to keep an economy strong. |
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The amount of gold in circulation will inflate as more gold is discovered, and I can't friggin wait until asteroid mining lets us stop stripping the Earth for gold and raw materials in the first place. |
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I think that the massive inflation you envision will be nicely spread between worlds... if we make it that far... and if our overlords, living in castles in the sky by then, let us lowlifes off this rock or keep us terrestrially enslaved. |
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//since there is 'supposed' to be actual bullion
housed somewhere equal to every dollar in
circulation// |
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I think the US left the gold standard somewhere in
the 1900s. |
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