On Sat, 7 Jun 1997, Dan Clore wrote:

> Harry Veeder wrote:
>
> > Money is made from something physical and exchanges hands,
>
> Not necessarily. Most money now is just data in computer banks. Money is
> now pure information. (Information, of course, always has a physical
> base, but that is not relevant to my point. -- And when it comes down to
> it, I suppose that paper money is simply information as well.)

What is your point? Is your point to deny the physical reality of money
and hope I will go along with you? ;)

People may not be trading coins or paper, when they do electronic
transactions, but this dosen't mean money has lost its physical basis and
now resides in some disembodied platonic relm.

Currency is literally anything which happens to be in current
use by a society. It might be polished stones or magnetic oxide
deposits on a tape. Whenever a new physical/technological basis for
money is adopted some people are left marginalized, and for those people
money is not "simply information". In fact, in todays highly networked
world, the physical/techonological basis for money is spread out through
many human/computer interfaces. I suppose the expansiveness of the
electronic/photonic money networks has inspired the modern myth that money
is now "simply information". ie. It is hard to hold a network in your hand
when you are just a node in the network.

Harry Veeder