<nettime> FW: MIT Scientist Discovers 'Anti-Money'

[Bruce Sterling <bruces@well.com>]

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From: "futurefeedforward" <fff@futurefeedforward.com>
Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 13:06:13 -0800
To: <bruces@well.com>
Subject: MIT Scientist Discovers 'Anti-Money'



September 16, 2103

MIT Scientist Discovers 'Anti-Money'

BOSTON--In a paper published recently in the journal Science, MIT
Professor Marguerite Fury reports establishing experimentally the
existence of 'anti-money', a bizarre economic phenomena linked by
Professor Fury to a host of hypothesized 'quantum economic' processes
underlying all matter. "Experimental confirmation of at least one of my
theoretical predictions tells me I'm on to something," notes Professor
Fury.  "This result will feed my thinking for some time."

    Described by Professor Fury as nearly indistinguishable, co-consuming
packets of 'quantum monies', anti-money is not the absence of money, but
its opposite.  Professor Fury explains:  "At the scale of everyday
economic phenomena, we tend to think of money and debt as complementary
opposites, but their opposition is, in fact, quite weak.  They actually
work in balance to permit the construction of large-scale economic
entities.  Anti-money is, in contrast, opposed to conventional money at a
more fundamental level; whenever money and anti-money come in contact, the
two are annihilated, leaving only a consumer residue."

    Because anti-money is annihilated in the presence of its opposite,
observation of anti-money required Professor Fury to construct a monetary
vacuum.  This vacuum, entirely devoid of money, lacked also all traces of
debt, because of debt's close association with 'positive monetary
phenomena' like interest accrual and periodic payments.  And, because of
the possible influence of economic processes attached to the observer,
Professor Fury herself had to occupy the center of the financial vacuum.

    "It's really quite difficult to rid yourself of all vestiges of
economic activity," notes Fury.  "I had to not only discharge all of my
own assets and liabilities, but also to disclaim any social benefits my
new economic status might entitle me too.  Try convincing a government
bureaucrat that you don't want any benefits.  It's not easy.  And, on top
of that, I had to quit my job.  I was almost up for tenure."

    After a number of days spent "wandering in the woods, naked and
alone," Professor Fury returned to the lab and activated a 'program
trading accelerator' generating within moments billions of 'wash sales',
or transactions in which offsetting assets are both bought and sold.  
Though wash sales have little or no positive economic consequence, assets
moving at high transaction-velocity generate infrequent 'friction
collisions' and 'asset-inversions' thought to throw off infintesimal
packets of monies and anti-monies.

    Though indistinguishable from conventional money, anti-money would,
Professor Fury predicted, be observable because of the consumer residue
that would remain after the money and anti-money generated by her program
trading met and was annihilated.

    "It was a moment of the most profound sublimity," recalls Professor
Fury.  "There I stood, naked, filthy, shivering in the lab, waiting by the
trading console, fearing for the worst.  Then, there it was, the consumer
residue, forming like a dew upon the table.  Just a few droplets that I
tasted before I could think:  Coca-Cola, the footprints of my long-sought
anti-money."

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