Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!ssyx.ucsc.edu!koreth
From: koreth@SSYX.UCSC.EDU (Steven Grimm)
Newsgroups: sci.nanotech
Subject: Re: MONEY MACHINE !!!!
Message-ID: <8906130723.AA21652@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 12 Jun 89 04:28:22 GMT
References: <8906120159.AA12572@athos.rutgers.edu>
Sender: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu
Organization: The Mad Scientists' Guild
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Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu


In article <8906120159.AA12572@athos.rutgers.edu> "Keith_J._Emanuel.HENR801c"@XEROX.COM writes:
>	Perhaps we need to speak about NanoScanners that can
>disassemble a new $100.00 bill and record the entire structure for
>later replication.
>
>[Well, maybe it's time to go back to the gold standard...  --JoSH]

As I recall, this was discussed briefly in EOC; Drexler suggested using
rare elements.  I envision something a bit different: when anyone can make
anything given the proper raw materials, those materials will become the
only (physical) things that are ever traded.  If, say, carbon turns out to
be vastly more useful than anything else for nanoconstruction purposes,
then it would become more valuable than a less useful element.  Of course,
scarcity will come into play; titanium may not prove to be as useful as
hydrogen, but it will certainly cost more.  This could lead to a new sort
of speculation, in which investors hunched at their terminals (or blended
into their terminals, if you prefer) sit around trying to figure out which
elements to buy and which to sell.

---
These are my opinions, which you can probably ignore if you want to.
Steven Grimm		Moderator, comp.{sources,binaries}.atari.st
koreth@ssyx.ucsc.edu	uunet!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!koreth

[They already do; cf the flurry of palladium speculation sparked
 by the cold fusion brouhaha.  That's not the same, of course, as
 walking around with coins of the rare element in your pocket.
 I don't want to get into the issues of a "cashless society" here,
 as that's been discussed at length in other venues, but it seems
 to me that the provenance of physical tokens of exchange is the least
 of our problems coming up...  
 Cher says, "If it came in a bottle, everyone would have a great 
 body."  Or a young body.  Or a great mind...  Ever read "Brain Wave"
 by Poul Anderson?
 I know plenty of people who, if it became possible to be physically
 self-sufficient, would drop right out of the economy just to avoid
 taxes.
 Just about the only facet of the human endeavor I *don't* see 
 nanotechnology altering drastically is tourism...
 --JoSH]