Why ETs Think Money Is Useless
Aliens have a better way to make the world go round
Money makes the world go round. Or rather, it makes our world go round. My extraterrestrial friends, though, think there’s a better way.
Slumber Parties Aren’t Cheap!
This evening, after yesterday's movie fiasco, I wanted to treat my ETs to a more neutral Earth tradition—a slumber party. You can never go wrong with good-old, non-violent sports like Pillow Fights and Truth or Dare. So I went to work ordering supplies from Amazon Earth.
Did you know that it costs $27,000 per pound of cargo on a rocket? After reassessing the value of my arms and legs (and my SpaceX stock), I decided we’d just play Scrabble, and talk about money.
Why we think we need money
On Earth, we value everything in terms of dollars and cents. Our world is driven by a complex, interacting network of buyers and sellers, producers and consumers collectively referred to as The Economy.
Humans use The Economy because it gives us a framework to act upon; a fixed system for assigning worth to concepts. It gives us our paychecks, our food. We are basically built around it. Without the economy, you’d be out of a job—because no one would know what to pay you…
