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Re: Islands in the Net
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In article <[email protected]>,
"Amanda Walker" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > What currency do Visa or Master Card issue, perchance?
>
> Little plastic tokens that are accepted more places than the government's
> paper and metal ones. If it quacks like a duck...
But it _doesn't_ quack like a duck; it hoots like a loon. Credit cards
aren't fungible like cash, they aren't anonymous like cash*, they don't
operate like cash from the cardholder's point of view, and they don't
operate like cash from the merchant's point of view.
> > Information doesn't obey conservation of mass, and so can't act as a
> > token.
>
> Exactly. On the other hand, with real-time clearing (which the Internet
> *does* provide the ability to do, with ever-increasing capacity), you can
> construct something that acts like an "instant check", which is close enough
> to cash for most practical purposes.
If you write a check, instant or otherwise, to provide funds to your
favorite political candidate's campaign committee, and that check is too
big, then the election watchdogs start barking. If you pass a satchel
full of cash along to the campaign, the watchdogs sleep through the
night undisturbed. Checks are not cash; there are important practical
purpose for which they differ profoundly.
- ------
*I don't see any reason why a credit card couldn't be anonymized, with
some kind of "Julf-style" bank account and an any-bearer-gets-to-use-this
card. People might want some kind of PIN protection if they're
concerned about losing the card. But the banks haven't chosen to offer
such a thing, and they just aren't available.
| In the other room I passed by Ellen Leverenz as
Alan Bostick | someone asked her "Do you know any monopole
[email protected] | jokes?"
finger for PGP public key | "Sure," she said. "In fact, I know two of them."
Key fingerprint: | -- Terry Carr, GILGAMESH
50 22 FB 46 41 A3 17 9D F7 33 FF E1 4E 1C 89 79 +legal_kludge=off
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