Parable of the Mind Control Watch

A group of alien explorers came to earth, to observe humans in their natural habitat.

This was a stop of minor importance, a brief waypoint in their excursions through space, documenting all manner of life forms they found along the way.

The aliens chose 3 humans to observe and studied their behavior for 2 weeks.

During that time, they noticed each had an apparatus on their wrists.

The humans would look at the apparatus before starting any new activity. Just before an activity change, they would consult the apparatus repeatedly.
The aliens determined that these creatures were mind controlled by this apparatus on their wrist.

The apparatus would tell them what to do and the creatures would obey. The humans would consult their wristbands whenever they needed new instructions.

The aliens then went on their way, observing many other fascinating creatures in the cosmos. This account of human beings — that we are mind controlled by mysterious wristbands, was published in their alien textbooks for eons, long past humanity’s brief existence .

What went wrong here? How could the aliens make such a flawed determination?

Clearly, watches don’t tell us what to do, they only share information about the world, which we use to make decisions, often according to predetermined plans.

We may think that those aliens were silly, but most of us make the same mistake when we think about money.

Money doesn’t tell us what do.

We decide what we will do.

Money simply allows us to synchronize or coordinate our activities to work together — Just like a watch.

Money allows us to work together on the same program, just like a watch allows us to meet in the same place at the same time.

If you were the last person alive, alone on earth, you could still keep accounting records, and there may be some use in doing so:

Dear Diary, today I collected 100 apples and stored them at 123 N, 456 W #13

But as for money, how many people need to compose society before it is a useful feature?

In a 1 or 2 person society, money would be useless.

Would money make sense if you had 3 people instead?

Perhaps 10 people is enough.

Maybe you need a hundred or a thousand.

Whatever the number, it is curious what we often do “because we need money”.