Economic Science Fictions Ch. 3: Currencies of Social Organisation: The Future of Money
David Graeber
Jonathan
Jul 19, 202629 February 2020
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Money is the subject of the latest chapter in my run-through of Economic Science Fictions. Sherryl Vint's essay lays out the argument for thinking of money as a social technology rather than as a thing, and explains the role science fiction can play in helping us to rethink it. Utopian Horizons i
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Summary
The speaker discusses Cheryl Vint’s essay on money in science fiction, arguing that currency is a social technology rather than a natural fact. Through examples like Ubik, In Time, and Neptune’s Brood, the episode shows how money and debt shape power, inequality, and social order, and how SF can estrange these systems to imagine utopian alternatives like debt forgiveness.
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