Will there ever be a time in the near/distant future where the use of money will be antiquated and a new system of exchange created?
System of exchanging what? The only reason we have currency is because plain ol’ bartering can be a real pain in the ass.
The systems used to control the value of currency have changed over time. Originally you had chunks of precious metals that you could trade for stuff, the value of which was determined solely by supply and demand. Then you had pieces of paper that you could exchange for chunks of precious metals, at banks, where the gold was conveniently stored in a big safe, and now most countries have reserve systems.
The instruments people use to transfer money have changed over time, due to technology, but that doesn’t change the fundamental nature of it. Checks can be used in place of paper currency (or chunks of metal) to transfer money between two bank accounts, and computers and phone networks make credit cards available for instant loans. But the idea of money, having a standard unit of value which can be exchanged for any good or service, has been the same for thousands of years.
OP, did you mean that someday cash be antiquated? Maybe replaced by a computerized credit/debit system?
Doubtful. Many people still enjoy buying their goods in open markets (where linking computer terminals at each booth may not be feasible). And let’s not forget about the third world, where the concept of every merchant being linked to a computerized credit/debit system is ridiculous.
I recall Alpha Centauri used “energy credits”. Which was an amazingly bad idea, on the level of the gold standard, really.
But if you mean cash, there’s a small chance that cash will dissappear, though there will likely be a new sort of cash, like the “certified credit” of Shadowrun. Cert Cred was guarranteed real and legit by a bank, but the credit stick was legally usable by whomever held it (though stealing it was not legal, using it was perfectly legal) and cert cred needed no biosystem validation, secret codes, or other ID.
Even in a rich world, like if all the planet was on the scale of US wealth, there’d be a place for cash.
b]HeyHomie:
And let’s not forget about the third world, where the concept of every merchant being linked to a computerized credit/debit system is ridiculous.**
so the third world is condemned to live in an information technology free state forever, eh?
I do not expect that to be the case;
Only if some unforeseen cause emerges to prevent them from using an online economy.
smiling bandit:
I recall Alpha Centauri used “energy credits”. Which was an amazingly bad idea, on the level of the gold standard, really.
All economic activity can be reduced to the flow of energy through a system;
this is a gross simplification of course,
but please elaborate on the difficulties involved.
That’s not what I meant. But it could be 100 years before Habib the Olive Vendor, and all his colleagues at the Tuesday Downtown Kinzamba Produce Exchange, will each have a Visa™ terminal (or an equivalent) at his booth.
Money ideally should not be tied to any energy or material. The scarcity and value of any given thing or process varies at given times, often in response to external events on that system. Ergo, the value of a credit would fluctuate wildly, as money on the gold standard could and often did. Money is what it needs to be - a medium of exchange to measure the abiiliy of an individual to command energy and materials. Tieing it to energy is pointless, a regression from a smoother developed system.
Maybe they wouldn’t need a fancy terminal - I imagine a cellphone-based system could be used. There are already vending machines that accept payment from a cellphone. It won’t be 100 years before Habib has a cellphone - lots of people, particularly merchants, in underdeveloped countries already do.