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GamblingImaginary Reality
by:
Daniel Punch
Our once concrete earth is now dissolving into a realm of intangibility.
It's engrossing to consider the route in which the computer and the Cyberspace have changed our lives. Tasks that once required visiting certain locations and interacting with specific people, such as booking a holiday or accessing your bank account can now be performed online. Often once
you do go somewhere to talk to an assistant they end up activity the task online in the same way you could have done yourself.
Online banking intrigues me greatly. We've all but lost the need for real currency. I get paid by check, which goes straight into my bank account. I then access my bank account mistreatment the Cyberspace and remove several money over to my savings account, which is at a several bank to my regular account. If I ever need money from my savings account I log in and remove it back to my main account. I have ne'er
given any 'real' money to this bank, nor have I ever received any from them. The majority of my purchases these days are ready-made mistreatment Eftpos. I hardly ever actually have cold, hard, real cash on me. Au fond we purchase things with data these days. Amount flit all over the place, being deducted
and additional from one variable to another. Presumptively
there is still real money somewhere being couriered between banks but I generally ne'er
see it. It does me wonder how long it wish be until we actually don't technically have money.
The stock market likewise
intrigues me. I've ne'er
been involved myself but it seems to me that it's the professional equivalent of gambling. Folk take a punt that a certain stock wish go up or down, and they either gain or lose money depending on whether or not their bet pans out. What interests me much is the fact that in essence this is an economic reality built about the construct of purchase
and commerce dead nothing. What you own are in theory
'parts' of a particular company. Collect enough bits and you could own the company. In beingness you remove a few amount that represent money and obtain a few amount that represent stocks. Once
these amount become larger amount you sell them again, and obtain in return a few much money numbers. There's commonly no real product or money (that you hold in your hands) seen in any of this process.
We have moral dilemmas now that simply didn't exist in the past. For example, is piracy actually stealing? All you take is a copy of data. No one actually loses thing
tangible out of the theft. Stealing a container means that being no longer has their handbag. Stealing a car means that being has to catch the bus for a while. Stealing a computer program means that another copy simply 'magically' pops into existence and becomes yours. The art movement super-villains of the past command
countries to ransom with real-life weapons of mammoth size, often floating in space. The reality of our modern earth is that you could hold a nation to ransom with nothing much 'real' than a copy of a few files from a secure computer.
Virtual reality may not have eventuated in the way of realistic virtual worlds, but in a way reality is becoming 'virtual'. It may not be problematic or even as surprising, but I find it engrossing that cold, hard cash and cold, hard facts are fast becoming thing
but tangible.
Just about the Author
Daniel Punch
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