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Commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Reading history, money seems like a macguffin. Of course, I read history like I would any other story since it's all conveniently packaged in a narrative. Money is the macguffin that makes the story move along, causes characters to do...
Commented on Design changes
I find chronological presentation much preferable in an ongoing discussion. Once a topic has gone stale, re-reading comments in a nested format are quite nice. Since it would be impractical (even if possible) to nest a discussion retroactively, I would...
Commented on Post-oil ...
In the western US, line drying has some distinct disadvantages. It's often dry and windy. While that translates into quick and efficient clothes drying, it also means keeping an eye out for dust clouds or losing your shorts to >40mph...

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Charlie Stross commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Cuz Native Americans are socially primitive and didn't have money-equivalents in the form of wampum and cacao beans and cotton cloth. Go read the book; he goes on at length about the nature of "primitive currencies" (the old anthropological term: modern term is "social currencies") and specifically discusses the role of wampum and cloth. TL;DR version is that he identifies fundamental differences in the role these currencies play as placeholders for social relationships that aren't necessarily interchangeable with other types of goods or services. (It's always unwise to confuse an interview -- the author speaking informally, off the cuff, and...
Charlie Stross commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Hello? You didn't answer the question. Which is not about the current state of the British economy, but somewhat larger and more abstract ......
Charlie Stross commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Charlie - all western economies rely on the same mechanism. Since the end of fixed exchange rates with the death of Bretton Woods all economies work on the same definition of money. I'm not talking about post-1972 western economies; I'm talking about money in the broadest historical context. (Question triggered by "Debt: The First Five Thousand Years" by David Graeber, which should give you an idea of the time scale I'm contemplating.)...
al-zorra commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Well, credit and debt aren't entirely eqivalencies. If you receive credit you may also be in debt, of course. But it is banks that seem for now and the future to be the only entities to issue credit. Credit crunches are as much a threat to economies as debt, and perhaps more. Though there some historical aspects of this, confined only to this nation's history (U.S.), that I do know something about, I'm not an informed commentator on these matters. CS is interested in the future, and my expertise, such as it is, is the past! Love, C....
Sean Eric Fagan commented on I had a blog entry for you, but it eated me
Please don't use this space for your abstract poetry....

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Common Misconceptions About Publishing—a series of essays about the industry I work in.
How I Got Here In The End —my non-writing autobiography, or what I did before becoming a full-time writer.
Unwirer—an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction.
Shaping the Future—a talk I gave on the social implications of Moore's Law.
Japan: first impressions — or, what I did on my holidays
Inside the MIT Media Lab—what it’s like to spend a day wandering around the Media Lab.
The High Frontier, Redux — space colonization: feasible or futile?
“Nothing like this will be built again”—inside a nuclear reactor complex.
Old blog—2003-2006 (RIP)

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