{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/482", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 482, "subject": "Cards", "messages": 5, "voices": 4, "first": "1998-07-09T21:40:30+00:00", "last": "1998-07-10T12:35:40+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-09T21:40:30+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Cards", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nI've just finished reading The Book of the Long Sun, and thought I'd\ngive some of the thoughts I had after reading the Whorl archives.\n\nThe use of the computer cards as currency always seemed a little\nstrange, and I have a theory about why this came about. Basically,\nTyphon didn't want the crew of the Whorl to be able to betray him by\ngetting away/sabotaging/disobeying him by using the ships and/or other\nsimilar things before the Whorl arrived at its destination and the\nCargo left to settle the planet and Typhon reappeared in day-to-day\nlife.\n\nBy taking the cards out of the things he didn't want the Crew (who\nstill retained their memories of technology use because they needed to\nbe able to run the ship's functions) to use, he renders them useless.\nTo keep the cards in a safe place that could be accessed when his plan\nneared conclusion he gives them to the partly-amnesiac Cargo to keep. \nHe tells them to use it as currency. He thus spreads it around among\nthe people who can each use their own cards to put into the machinery\nof the ship in which they leave the Whorl. It spreads it out over the\nwhole Whorl, and because it's money, the people won't want to part\nwith it. The Crew wouldn't be able to go around and collect the\ncards, and the Cargo wouldn't help at all, they don't want to give\naway their money. When Typhon wants them to leave, he just instructs\nthem to bring their cards with them, which they'll probably do anyway.\n On the ship, he tells them to put the cards into the slots and the\nship functions, taking them down.\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-07-10T08:49:21+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Cards", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, Sean Whalen wrote:\nThe use of the computer cards as currency always seemed a little\nstrange, and I have a theory about why this came about. Basically,\nTyphon didn't want the crew of the Whorl to be able to betray him \n[...]\nHe tells them to use it as currency. He thus spreads it around among\nthe people who can each use their own cards to put into the machinery\nof the ship in which they leave the Whorl. It spreads it out over the\nwhole Whorl, and because it's money, the people won't want to part\nwith it. The Crew wouldn't be able to go around and collect the\ncards, and the Cargo wouldn't help at all, they don't want to give\naway their money. When Typhon wants them to leave, he just instructs\nthem to bring their cards with them, which they'll probably do anyway.\n On the ship, he tells them to put the cards into the slots and the\nship functions, taking them down." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think this makes sense. I'll just add that the breaking of cards into\nbits is a tragedy unforseen by Typhon (not to mention a nifty pun). \nExcept I don't know enough economics to guess how plausible it is cards\ncould have once been common currency and changed so that for most peasants\nthey represent a huge sum. \n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "John Gersten", "address": "jgersten at slip.net" }, "date": "1998-07-10T08:11:26+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Cards", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Michael Straight wrote:\nOn Thu, 9 Jul 1998, Sean Whalen wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "The use of the computer cards as currency always seemed a little\nstrange, and I have a theory about why this came about. Basically,\nTyphon didn't want the crew of the Whorl to be able to betray him " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I think this makes sense. I'll just add that the breaking of cards into\nbits is a tragedy unforseen by Typhon (not to mention a nifty pun). \nExcept I don't know enough economics to guess how plausible it is cards\ncould have once been common currency and changed so that for most peasants\nthey represent a huge sum. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Is is a certainty that, once broken into bits (so to speak), the cards\ncannot ever be re-integrated?\n\nThat question aside, I agree with Sean's original post, though I'd never\nthought about it that way before .\n\nJohn (a newbie who is delighted to find this list isn't completely silent\nafter all -- I feel like I just had a theophany via pine! )" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-07-10T11:58:37+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Cards", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Fri, 10 Jul 1998, John Gersten wrote:\nOn Fri, 10 Jul 1998, Michael Straight wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On Thu, 9 Jul 1998, Sean Whalen wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 3, "text": "The use of the computer cards as currency always seemed a little\nstrange, and I have a theory about why this came about. Basically,\nTyphon didn't want the crew of the Whorl to be able to betray him " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I think this makes sense. I'll just add that the breaking of cards into\nbits is a tragedy unforseen by Typhon (not to mention a nifty pun). \nExcept I don't know enough economics to guess how plausible it is cards\ncould have once been common currency and changed so that for most peasants\nthey represent a huge sum. " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Is is a certainty that, once broken into bits (so to speak), the cards\ncannot ever be re-integrated?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "No, but what's the likelihood of finding the right 100 bits you need to\nreassemble a given card?\n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kevin J. Maroney", "address": "kmaroney at crossover.com" }, "date": "1998-07-10T12:35:40+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Cards", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 11:58 AM 7/10/98 -0400, Rostrum wrote:\nNo, but what's the likelihood of finding the right 100 bits you need to\nreassemble a given card?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, there's no guarantee that the Cards are program chips--they could\njust be pure memory, or power, or something else interchangable. \n\nIf they're not interchangable, then the whole idea that Pas set them up as\ncurrency weakens anyway--although I suppose if one Card holds an entire\npersonality--\"Majordomo Fred\", say--then just bringing along a good set of\nthem would give you enough personalities to make the system functional.\n\nHowever, I don't think that's what is going on. I suspect the Cards became\na unit of currency for the reason that gold did on Earth: they're scarce,\nmeasurable, almost indestructable, pretty, and portable. " }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Wombat\n\n-- \nKevin Maroney--Crossover Technologies--kmaroney at crossver.com\n We must move forward, not backward. Upward, not forward. And twirling,\n ever twirling, into the future. --Bob \"Citizen Kang\" Dole" } ] } ] }